Legend Of Korra: Thunder
by Vergil Leonidas
Summary: Sometimes living and working with the Chief of Police means you have to deal with a headache. Add a hot-headed Avatar to the picture and it's a perfect recipe for a migraine, if Vergil's ever known one. If only he'd learn how to avoid the relationships that put his health at risk he'd probably live a longer life, but where's purpose in that?
1. Nameless Child

"Talking"

 _"Thinking"_

 **"Ability"**

 _ **"Author Note"**_

* * *

 _ **Book 1 – Air**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1 – Nameless Child**_

* * *

Pain.

All he could feel was pain.

He had a splendid day, really, fighting the hardest battle in his entire life. He won, that much he could remember.

At least he hoped he remembered correctly. Well, he was alive, for now, and if he lost he would have died.

A smirk found its way through the pain and appeared on his face. Serves them right for doubting him. He still won.

Where was he anyway? The last thing he remembered was that massive burst of power, followed by a feeling similar to passing through the portal. Was he in the Human World? Judging by the air it was the most likely location, as vague as that was. It was raining, that much he could tell, he liked rain especially when it was accompanied by the lightning, but this time the rain didn't soothe him, what lulled him into the sleep was the pain that made him black out while the blood pooled underneath him.

The darkness of the night gave him a bit of comfort though as his consciousness slipped away. The yellow eyes that could see in the dark saw the glimmer of the cloudy black skies and he smiled in a quite satisfied way. If the death took him away right here and now he'd eagerly accept it.

* * *

Lin Beifong probably had it all in eyes of some people. She worked as the Chief of the Metalbending Police Force, she was the daughter of renowned Toph Beifong who not only helped the previous Avatar save the world but also invented the **Metalbending.** Frankly, she was an accomplished, albeit lonely, woman. Not that she minded the lack of company; it's just that living completely on her own had its downsides. At least no one was waiting for her to come back home since it was already past one a.m.

A voice in the back of her head told her she should have drove home. And she would have if she wasn't desperately needing some kind of activity after a long day of filling out paperwork.

Walking down the street she saw a body lying on the street, in the rain, her first instinct was that it was a robbery gone wrong as she went up to the body. The pool of blood underneath the body didn't surprise her, though the amount of it was disturbing even in the rain. She scowled; rain would make finding the culprit even harder.

And then she noticed the victim's hair. Completely white, so the victim was an elderly male. Lin reached out and touched the victim's neck, her eyes widened immediately when she felt pulse followed by a foot hitting her in the guts. Her uniform absorbed most of the impact but she still staggered back a bit.

The victim coughed a few times and clearly struggled to get back on his feet. He turned to glare at her, obviously pissed off because of something. His appearance surprised Lin, he was far from an elderly man, in fact, despite pure white hair, it didn't look like he was older than seventeen.

The child was unsure of what to do from now on, all he knew was that this person touched his neck. The years he spent fighting made him think twice before trusting anyone and he rolled back before forcing himself to jump on his feet. He visibly winced and glanced down. He had wounds all over his body, probably a few broken bones and his vision was getting blurry. He cursed being exhausted to the point where using his abilities seemed impossible but he wouldn't go down without fighting. His sight cleared just enough to realize that he was in a street in a Human World and by the looks of it, it was quite late in the night as only he and the strange middle aged woman stood there.

He looked at her eyes and for a moment let down his guard and relaxed his posture, but the woman was angry…

Tired from the work she had to go through and now being kicked away by some brat, there was only so much Lin Beifong would take and she kicked the ground making the child look at her in a puzzled way.

Child bit down a yelp when he felt the ground beneath his left feet rise up and break his balance, he managed to jump away. He knew some humans could bend elements but he wasn't that familiar with the methods of doing so.

Figuring out that he was at a disadvantage on the ground as soon as she used **Earthbending** to catapult the ground that he was going to land on he managed to slightly alter his position in midair and grab onto the post, he pulled himself up and stood on the top of it.

Lin noticed the injuries, the deep cuts, bruises, and the exhaustion clearly visible on his face. Realizing that she was venting out her frustration at someone in that condition made her reconsider it.

"Get down here, I don't want to fight," she tried to sound willing enough to just talk with him but being tired made her sound as if she was ordering him to follow her words.

Child didn't like the tone she used, and he made it obvious by glaring at her. Still he didn't quite trust her, deciding to go with the safest route he jumped down and ran to the opposite side.

Lin merely sighed at that.

"Tch," the child clicked his tongue in annoyance when the earth wall stopped him in his tracks; he turned around to see the Chief of Police at the end of the street.

"Quit running kid," Lin said as she approached the white haired child. "Come on now, I don't have anything to arrest you for, yet."

The first words he said to her, well they were quite charming. "Drop dead," the child that couldn't be older than seventeen with piercing yellow eyes and pure white hair grumbled through his teeth.

She halted, not because of the words but because of his eyes. Yellow with slit shaped pupils, color aside the pupils were downright unusual. And that moment of pause allowed the boy to surprise her once again. This child was no bender that much was clear, what he did was the product of sheer physical strength, but he slammed his fist though the stone wall and made hole big enough for him to jump through.

Wordlessly Lin stopped him in slipping away by bending the ground he stepped on to trap his feet.

"What did I just tell you kid?" she grew annoyed at him as she saw him breaking through the earth bind that had caught his feet; tired of his resistance she brought the earth up to his shoulders thus rendering him motionless.

He refused to beg for mercy, he refused to plead for her to let him go; he just gritted his teeth as she walked up to him and stopped just a foot away from him. "Never heard of a personal space?" the boy hissed and scoffed.

Lin looked at his eyes and the boy's fierce glare revealed discomfort at the situation and the fear of his own weakness, she could understand it, not many non-benders could even keep up with benders, of any level, let alone someone as skilled as her. Yet she was sort of impressed, he managed to put up some fight even in the state he was in, they may have not fought directly but from his reflexes and the power he had behind his hits she knew that he was a capable fighter, even when he was injured and exhausted.

The eyes however lost their fierceness and life as fatigue took him over once again, Lin retracted her bending and the nameless child passed out in Lin's arms and she sighed before she took him to the hospital.

* * *

Three days later and Lin found herself thinking less about the boy she met on that night and more about what to do next. The wounds were serious; he lost a lot of blood and probably spent a long time in the rain. The chances of making it out alive were slim and frankly she was furious with herself because any day now she would receive a call from the hospital and the assault case would turn into murder case. Given the fact that there was nothing besides the boy himself on the scene it would likely remain unsolved. They couldn't even identify the boy and there was no missing person report anywhere that matched him. If it wasn't for heavy rain that likely erased all the evidence Lin would have dared to think that the boy just appeared without solid explanation.

Well, that might explain the small pieces of some strange armor healers found in some of his wounds. She didn't see them, but they assured her it wasn't made out of material they knew about.

And then the phone in her office rang.

She picked up the phone. "Chief Beifong."

"Good afternoon ma'am, Republic City Hospital here. We're calling to inform you that the young male you brought three days ago-"

There it was, she was ready to hear it. Which didn't make it any less frustrating, not to mention the kid clearly knew how to fight so it was truly a wasted potential.

"-woke up roughly fifteen minutes ago."

Yes, wasted potential.

Wait what?

"Woke up?" even Lin Beifong couldn't hide surprise in her voice over that statement.

"Yes, it appears he's going to make a surprisingly quick recovery."

"I'll be there in less than an hour," Lin quickly informed the healer.

* * *

When the white haired male woke up he felt a very odd feeling, pain, a lot of it. Which wasn't supposed to happen, his body shut down, he lost consciousness so natural defensive mechanisms should have kicked in.

They didn't.

His wounds were closed and he somehow survived the blood loss but his body didn't heal the way it usually did when he lost consciousness like this.

Slowly he managed to sit up and immediately realized how stupid the idea was, but he needed to get up and freshen up a bit. Maybe he just needed to rest a bit longer. Looking around the room he guessed he was in the hospital, those places were similar wherever you were as far as his experience went. He stumbled to the sink and realized that he had no idea how to get the water running. There was a faucet but he couldn't figure out what to do to save his life. Back home there was a simply switch, pull up to get the water running and push down to stop it. So the male fiddled with the faucet for a minute or two before finally turning the mechanism the right way.

"This is embarrassing," he muttered and washed his hands, he then proceeded to splash his face a few times. Absent-mindedly he glanced at the mirror and froze. His eyes widened. Yellow eyes. Not red.

The world seemed to spin around him as he dropped down to the floor feeling dizzy and nauseous for reasons that had little to do with his physical state. Everything made sense now, speed of his recovery, his eye color changing; there was only one more thing he needed to confirm. He raised his hand and concentrated, a couple of sparks emerged and circled around his hand but as soon as he did that he began coughing violently, he felt excruciating pain in his chest and neck and his vision was getting blurry.

There was no doubt about it, he was sick and there was nothing he could do about it.

And then, to make the situation even worse the doors opened and the woman he fought with briefly, along with a person he assumed was a doctor walked in. He fought back the pain and looked at the older woman, there was no need for anyone to know that he was in pain, plus she likely saved his life. Even if she did touch his neck prior to that. Well, he shouldn't hold it against her; she probably didn't intend to harm him.

Upon seeing him on the floor the male's eyes widened and he turned to the hall. "Healers-" he went to call for someone to come.

"No need to call them, I just got a bit dizzy," the boy pushed himself back to his feet and turned the water off to prove his point. "Blood loss perhaps?" there was no way he was telling them the real reason he was on the floor. With about as much vigor as he could muster he walked over to his bed and sat down. Luckily it seemed to calm the man in white mantle down just enough. "So? Here to question me and do all the law enforcement stuff?" he guessed as he looked at Lin.

Considering the fact that she had her coat on and the boy had no way of seeing that she was indeed the Chief of Police Lin raised an eyebrow.

"You mentioned arrest," he reminded her and explained his assumptions.

"I'm surprised you even remember that," Lin admitted with her arms folded. "Anyway kid, what's your name?"

He stopped for a moment, thinking things through and deciding whether or not to say his name. "Well, you did save my life. Vergil Leonidas," the boy, Vergil replied.

Lin observed the boy looking for signs of lying; it appeared that he was being completely honest with her. "That's far from a usual name," she pointed out.

Vergil simply grinned. "What can I say, my parents liked to screw with tradition."

* * *

 _ **And that's it.**_

* * *

 _ **Next Chapter – Avatar Korra**_


	2. Avatar Korra

_**Chapter 2 – Avatar Korra**_

* * *

Walking down the harbor while the shipment was being unloaded was a usual thing he did, it wasn't the most peaceful place in the world but Vergil liked it, it brought back memories and this was one of the first places he went to with Lin.

Ships at the harbor. Check. People unloading stuff. Check. Nice weather. Check. Water tribe girl leaving the cargo on a polar bear dog. Check.

Wait what?

"Thanks for the ride!" before Vergil could even think about what just happened the girl on her polar bear dog was gone. He couldn't help but chuckle, the girl just surprised him; guess the time he spent in the Human World really did make him relax.

He decided to continue his stroll into the streets as well, just so he could check on some things.

* * *

Down the street a shopkeeper was having some usual troubles with the Triple Threat Triads

"Either you pay or…"

"All right, that's about enough of this," a male voice interrupted the thug in the middle of the sentence.

They turned around and saw Vergil, dressed in civilian clothing carrying two wooden swords strapped to his left hip and a police badge strapped to his belt on the right.

"You again? You made quite a few of our comrades go to jail and you still have guts to show your face around here?" the leader spat as he glared at the white haired male that walked up to the front of the shop.

"I get my monthly salary by sending you bastards to jail, so yeah, I think your kind will keep seeing me around here for quite some time," Vergil stated and without even arming himself dashed to the three thugs.

Zero down, three to go.

The one on the left didn't even have time to bend his respective element, which seemed to be water if the flask of water was anything to go by as the white haired male punched him in the guts thus making him double over and fall onto the ground.

One down, two to go.

A blast of fire made him jump up and pull out one of the wooden swords. When another blast of fire went toward him he slashed the wooden blade with enough force to weaken the flames and pass through them with only a bit of heat licking his skin and singeing the clothes he was wearing. He landed right in front of the Firebender and planted a knee into his jaw. Before the man could fly into the shop he grabbed him by the head and slammed onto his fallen comrade.

Two down, one to go.

"Quit interfering," Leader shouted at him and slammed his feet onto the ground, male pretty much expected a rock to fly toward him but instead it went toward the shopkeeper.

"Bastard," Vergil hissed as he rushed to the shopkeeper much faster than anyone would have anticipated and threw a punch at the human sized rock. The force behind the punch shattered the rock but injured the male's right fist; it was just a few scratches and maybe a minor fracture of the bones so he could still use it without a problem.

Bender's eyes widened when he saw the male glared at him.

"Do not, under any circumstances, attack anyone defenseless on my watch," Vergil growled, rage burning in his eyes as he walked over to the Earthbender.

The Earthbender felt like he was struck by a lightning when the white haired cop punched him.

With the enemies unconscious the cop took a deep breath, his heart beat slowly getting back to the normal rhythm. Maybe it wasn't worth doing that on a regular thug…

"Thank you, Vergil," the shopkeeper bowed to him.

"No need to bow, it's my job," on second thought, it was completely worth it and Vergil knew it.

Three down, zero to go.

* * *

Saikhan was a big shot in the Metalbending Police Force, second only to Lin herself when it came to the rank. Rank that didn't get him any respect from a single thorn in his eye, the same thorn that decided to show up right now. Bloody Leonidas… The damned brat was an excellent detective and an even better fighter, that much even Saikhan had to admit. But the blunt disrespectful jerk was a more fitting description if you asked him. Seeing as that same jerk was carrying three people down the street made him even grumpier.

"Leonidas," Saikhan greeted him.

Vergil seemingly ignored the man and tossed the benders into patrol vehicle, he then turned to address one of the younger officers. "Get them to prison, and keep a better eye out on the streets," Vergil pretty much ordered.

Young officer saluted quickly. "Yes Sir!"

"Leonidas," Saikhan once again addressed the male while suppressing his personal feelings as much as he could. "You answer to me."

"I don't listen to weaklings," Vergil responded evenly and walked off leaving Saikhan to growl behind him.

* * *

Vergil wasn't the only one encountering the Triple Threat Triads today, the girl he saw earlier that day was having similar luck, getting into the middle of the Triads demanding money.

"Give me the money or else…" and once again the leader of the group was interrupted.

"Or else what, hoodlum?" the girl that asked and dared to stand up to the thugs was a quite pretty water tribe girl with just about enough muscles. She had the usual Water tribe hairstyle consisting of her dark brown hair tied in wolf-tail, she had cyan colored eyes and was wearing average water tribe outfit consisting of sleeveless light blue shirt, water tribe armband on her right arm and two bands around her forearms. This girl's name was Korra.

Triple Thread Triads looked at each other before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"Since you are obviously fresh off the boat let me explain a couple of things. You're in Triple Threat Triad territory and we're about to put you in the hospital."

Korra wasn't intimidated by them; in fact she looked eager to fight. "You are the only ones who'll need a hospital," she cracked her knuckles. "And for your sake I hope there's one nearby."

Now they were really getting pissed off. "Who do you think you are?"

"Why don't you come and find out?" She challenged them.

The leader took the bait and shot water at her, though his attempt was fruitless as she stopped the water and sent it right into his face before freezing it. The leader stumbled forward and she swung her leg at his face thus knocking the man out. He hit the car the Triads were driving and passed out.

The second one tried to **Earthbend** but she beat him to it. She made the ground raise up fast enough to send the man into the air.

"What just happened?" "Did she just **Earthbend**?" two nearby observers questioned as the thug made quite a lot of damage that escalated in him falling onto the fruit stand.

The remaining thug tried to shoot fire at Korra but she dispersed it as she jumped toward him, grabbed his hands and threw him into the shop.

"Can she **Firebend** too?" "Could she be…?"

Yeah, she was, this girl, Korra, was the new Avatar.

Korra walked up to the fallen thug and chuckled. "Got an idea of who I am now, chumps?"

The roar of satomobile coming to life made her turn her head and move out of the way as the thugs tried to escape. The firebender tried to get on as well but Korra made him stumble by bending the ground underneath his feet.

"You're not getting away," she slammed her foot on the ground and made the street turn into a bit of a wreck as the control over the car was lost and it crashed into another store.

The sound of Metalbending Police Force coming into the scene made her turn to the skies. "Metalbenders… Cool," she breathed out in awe.

"I caught the bad guys for you officers," Korra told them when Saikhan approached her.

"Arrest them," Saikhan ordered and the newly conscious thugs were caught by the metal cables. The captain walked up to Korra and pointed his finger at her. "You are under arrest too."

This of course shocked the girl. "What do you mean I'm under arrest? Those are the bad guys over there; they were smashing up a shop!" she justified her actions.

"From the looks of it you smashed up a lot more than that," he shot metal cables at her but she managed to catch them.

"Wait. You can't arrest me, let me explain."

"You can explain yourself all you like down at Headquarters."

One hectic attempt to run away and one tough arrest later Korra was in the interrogation room with none other than Lin Beifong…

"Let's see. Multiple counts of destruction of private and city property, not to mention evading arrest," Lin slammed the report on the table. "You are in a whole mess of a trouble young lady."

Korra really wanted to explain herself, she helped she shouldn't be here. "But there were some thugs threatening helpless shopkeeper and I-"

"Can it!" Lin interrupted her. "You should have called the police and stayed out of the way."

"But I couldn't just sit by and do nothing. It's my duty to help people. See, I'm the Avatar," that would probably work; it actually would work on most people.

Not on Lin though.

"Oh, I am well aware of who you are. And your Avatar title might impress some people, but not me," Lin was quick to let the young Avatar know that her title meant nothing in Lin's eyes.

Korra gave up on persuading her into seeing her reasoning. "All right, fine, then I want to talk to whoever is in charge."

"You are talking to her," Lin sat down. "I'm Chief Beifong."

"Wait. Beifong? Lin Beifong? You are Toph's daughter!" Korra realized.

"What of it?"

"Then why are you treating me like a criminal. Avatar Aang and your mother were friends. They saved the world together!" Korra tried to persuade her.

"That's ancient history. And it's got diddly-squat to do with the mess you are in right now," as she said that Lin's voice got a bit less passive and a bit more aggravated. "You can't just waltz in here and dole out vigilante justice like you own the place," Lin scolded her.

"Hey, I see you've been busy," suddenly the doors opened and Vergil just waltzed in.

Korra looked at the male that casually entered the interrogation room, he wasn't wearing the formal uniform of the Police, in fact his attire was quite casual, a black jacket with two red stripes on each sleeve and red line across the shoulder line was covering the simple cobalt blue shirt he had underneath. The black trousers and army boots he had on had little to no detail but the simple clothes seemed to suit him. He had two wooden swords strapped to his hip and that was one of the unusual things about him. His pure white hair and yellow eyes with black slit shaped pupils were the other strange part of him, but the trait that made her look at him the most was the horrendous lightning shaped scar that covered most of the right side of his face.

Lin on the other hand wanted nothing but to scold Vergil for casually strolling into her interrogations. Now normally some of the officers would inform her about people wanting to get in but the white haired male was her right hand so he could just walk in from time to time without her being informed about it.

Scolding would have to wait though as she finally got informed by her officers. "Chief. Councilman Tenzin is here."

Lin sighed; of course they'd inform her now. "Let him in," she stood up and faced the doors while Vergil glanced at Korra, then picked up the report and went to lean against the metal wall as he read it.

Tenzin walked in through the doors that previously slid open and first looked at Korra.

"Tenzin. I'm sorry. I, I got a little sidetracked on my way to see you," Korra apologized.

Tenzin took a deep breath to calm down and turned to Lin with a big smile on his face. "Lin, you are looking radiant as usual."

"Cut the garbage Tenzin," she was having none of that. "Why is the Avatar in Republic City? I thought you were supposed to be moving down to the South Pole to train her," the Chief assumed.

"My relocation has been delayed. The Avatar on the other hand will be heading back to the South Pole immediately where she will stay put," Tenzin declared.

"But-" Korra tried to argue.

"If you would be so kind as to drop charges against Korra I will take full responsibility for today's regretful events and cover all the damages," Tenzin offered before Korra could say anything else.

Lin sighed as she looked back at Korra. "Fine," she relented and released the cuffs that were holding the girl. "Get her out of my city," she demanded fiercely.

"Always a pleasure Lin. Let's go Korra." Before he left, Tenzin looked at Vergil who didn't shy away from the eye contact. The Airbending master was aware of the male's relationship with Lin that strongly resembled that of a child and mother at times, especially given the way Vergil took offence to anyone messing with Lin, even though he knew that Lin could easily deal with anyone. Tenzin would lie if he said that he wasn't happy because of that, ever since the boy came into Lin's life the woman seemed a bit more, relaxed, so to speak.

Korra followed the Airbending Master but then turned to look at Lin again. The Chief gave her a sign to show that she will be looking at her and Korra returned the gesture.

Vergil suppressed a chuckle at that, the girl was completely unaware of what Lin meant by what she did and Lin was not amused by it.

"She's going on your nerves, eh?" he smirked briefly at the woman.

Lin Beifong simply looked at the male, this was the same child she met three years ago on that night and now he was pretty much an adult, twenty years old white haired male.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to barge in here like that, Vergil?" Lin asked.

"Until you get tired of it?" Vergil suggested and sat down on the chair Korra had occupied just a few minutes ago. "So why did you let her off the hook? Just because she's the Avatar? You know that that's not an excuse."

"Don't teach me how to do my job," Lin simply told him, over the last three years the two had grown quite familiar and the relationship Lin had with the white haired male made her believe that the decision to not have any children of her own was the right one.

Vergil on the other hand grew oddly fond of the older woman, despite the fact that their relationship began in bad circumstances. "By the way I caught some Triads on my way here," Vergil said out of blue.

Lin wasn't surprised, though he wasn't wearing the uniform Vergil was fully fledged non-bending officer of the Police and one of the best ones she had at her disposal. When he wasn't doing the paperwork he would just go out, take a walk and return with a handful of the thugs. "I'll let you handle the questioning," She stated.

He stood up and sighed. "Well, the sooner I get started the sooner they'll get out of my sight."

Lin nodded, she had no trouble when it came to making him listen to the direct orders, however when it came to indirect orders, or the orders from anyone else, even members of the Council, he downright ignored them. It seemed like the male followed those he deemed worthy of being followed and for everyone else he followed his mood at the moment.

"What happened to your hand?" she noticed the small scratches on his right hand. The question was simply asked to confirm her suspicions.

"The bastard **Earthbender** tried to hit a civilian," the response Vergil gave to the Chief of Police was something she expected.

Lin rolled her eyes at that. "And you blocked the rock with your fist. Genius," Lin was obviously sarcastic.

"I didn't block it, I punched through it," Vergil pouted. It wasn't like the injury was that big, a few scratches, he had worse so this would heal in no time.

"Get it checked, I'll handle the interrogation," Lin told him and he couldn't help but almost feel sorry for the poor thugs, almost.

"I wouldn't want to be in their skin, that's for sure," he smirked.

* * *

Lin finished her work for the night and left the office, she wasn't surprised to see the white haired male leaning against the wall next to her doors.

"Come on kid, let's go home," she told him and he wordlessly he followed her down the stairs and out of the already empty building.

"That girl is either on her way home or with Tenzin on the Air Temple Island," Vergil suddenly spoke up.

"Knowing Tenzin she is on the Air Temple Island now," Lin wanted to end the subject though she knew Vergil wouldn't just stop with that, he simply pointed the two possibilities out to inform her that the conversation would be about the Avatar.

"You know she may have played a vigilante but what she did was right and it showed us the faults of our own officers. Saikhan, your official right hand, couldn't get there in time and we should talk about the competence of the regular officers," Vergil pointed out bluntly.

"You can't stop the crime, you can fight it but it'll never disappear," Lin stated, understanding where Vergil was coming from but also knowing how the world actually worked.

The white haired male scowled at that. "And you can't fight it without competent people. There are districts in the city belonging to the thugs."

"There's only so much we can do, haven't you learnt that by now?"

"Even so I don't feel like giving up, so I'll keep bringing you the criminals, until I can no longer keep going," Vergil said and Lin stopped, he ignored it and took the lead.

The Chief of Police didn't take that easily, she knew his condition, most of it actually, she knew about the disease and that even with everything he did to slow it down it would only be a matter of time before he died. She couldn't do anything, he refused to visit Katara, he didn't want the disease to stop him from at the very least fighting, at least so far the only symptoms she knew off were the fits of coughing up blood when he was exhausted.

"By the way, how come this is the first time that girl came to the city as far as I know," he got the conversation back to Korra.

Lin sighed. "She's been living in the compound on the South Pole; she never left the place in her life," she briefly summed it up and Vergil nodded that was all he felt like he should know about the girl given the fact that they never even talked to one another.

* * *

As it usually happened Vergil was doing the daily paperwork he had when the programme on the radio caught his attention.

 _'Hello. I'm Korra.'_

The girl speaking at the conference sounded nervous.

 _'Your new Avatar'._

And of course the reporters bombarded her with so many questions about who she will be fighting, about whether or not she'll work together with Lin and the Police, oh he knew the answer to that one, even if the girl wanted to Lin would have none of that, at least not until the new Avatar proved herself.

 _'Uh yes, I am definitely here to stay but honestly… I don't exactly have a plan… yet. You see I'm still in training… but…'_

Good thing she decided to pause for a moment she no longer sounded nervous, now she sounded like a nervous wreck.

' _Look. All I know is Avatar Aang meant for this city to be the center of peace and balance in the world and I believe we can make his dream a reality. I look forward to serving you. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you Republic City!'_

' _All right that's all the question for now.'_

Vergil heard Tenzin ending the conference and was half impressed, the part of the speech about Republic City being the center of peace and balance was fine, even good in his opinion, the way she spoke and the confidence behind her words meant that she really meant what she said. The part about being happy and thanking the city well he didn't quite like that, but to each their own.

"Leonidas," he heard an all too familiar voice.

"Saikhan. What is it?" Vergil turned to the right hand of the Chief of Police, Saikhan.

"I just figured I'd come and see what you think about the new Avatar," Saikhan cut to the point, the two didn't get along that well but from time to time the older officer would try to make a conversation in situations like these.

For what reason, Vergil had no idea.

"I don't care about her being an Avatar. I'd rather reconsider the efficiency of our own officers if someone else has to deal with the thugs of that caliber," Vergil pointed out shutting the chances of reconciliation between the two quicker than ever before.

"She did more harm than good," Saikhan argued.

"She avoided potential casualties," Vergil countered.

"There wouldn't be any."

"There is nothing that can guarantee that."

Saikhan was slowly losing patience. "She should have called the Police."

"Your unit was already nearby and they couldn't arrive until everything ended. What good would calling one do?" the younger male inquired.

"We would have prevented the damage," Saikhan seemed fairly confident in that.

Vergil looked fairly annoyed. "And by the time you got there thugs would be long gone. Furthermore how do you expect her to know the number she's supposed to call? It's not like she has the phonebook with her all the time."

"She tried to escape," the arguments grew weaker.

"It's natural thing to do for someone like her. I am aware, from what Lin told me, about the way she lived thus far; someone who grew up under those circumstances isn't capable of handing that kind of situation right away."

"There's just no arguing with you," Saikhan gave up. There was no way he could ever work with Vergil alone, the white haired male was simply too stubborn.

"I figured you knew that by now. I'm done with my paperwork, tell Lin I went to take a stroll and don't mess around the next time you go on a patrol. We can't erase crime but we can at least make sure we stop as much as we can," Leonidas stepped out of the office leaving the Captain alone with other officers that once again witnessed the verbal beating Saikhan took from the white haired officer. Of course they remained silent…

* * *

 _ **That's it. As the story progresses there will be some flashbacks explaining some of the stuff that occurred in the three year gap between these two chapters.**_

* * *

 _ **Answer on review:**_

 _ **Naroku – Thanks for the review, it means a lot.**_

 _ **Guest – Thank you very much.**_

* * *

 _ **Next Chapter – Showdown At The Memorial Island**_


	3. Showdown At The Memorial Island 1

_**Chapter 3 – Showdown At The Memorial Island 1**_

* * *

Yet another peaceful night on the Air Temple Island and the Avatar was spending it by practicing the usual move set of an Airbender.

' _Good evening, my fellow Equalists. This is your leader, Amon._ '

As Korra heard the dreaded man's voice via radio she turned to look at the radio.

' _As you have heard, the Republic Council has voted to make me the public enemy number one. Proving once again that the bending oppressors of this city will stop at nothing to quash our revolution. But we cannot be stopped. Our numbers grow stronger by the day. You no longer have to live in fear; the time has come, for benders to experience fear._ '

And oh did she fear, she was scared out of her mind, not that she would show it to anyone else.

* * *

Lin and Vergil were eating dinner when Amon's speech was broadcasted and the two shared a brief look.

"He's getting an upper hand," Vergil stated matter-of-factly, more than anything he knew that when there was a problem, the best choice was to keep doing something about it, even if it was just talking.

"There's not much we can do about it," Lin had to admit it, without something leading them to the Equalists they remained stuck.

"And we don't actually have a plan in case we can do something," the white haired male grumbled, his interest in the topic was quite low up until they received the information that Amon could take bending away. Of course it didn't concern him, there was nothing Amon could take away from him, but Lin would be out there and if things went wrong she could lose her bending.

"You've always been good at long operations. Do you have any idea where to start?" Lin asked out of blue and Vergil knew where this was going, in fact he had the similar idea himself.

"It'll take time, but I think I can get a few things done before Amon steps up with his plan. Well first of all I'll need all the information we have so far. Give me a few days off and I'll get things set in motion," Vergil requested knowing that the only way to get this done was to take it one step at a time.

"We'll get to it the first thing in the morning, you'll get the days off so make sure you can get us something to work with," it was an order and they both knew it, the white haired male nodded and stood up.

"I better get some sleep then, I get a feeling I'll be too invested into this to get enough sleep," he said jokingly. "Good night."

"Good night," Lin was left alone as Vergil made his way into his room.

* * *

And just like Lin said they got to it the first thing in the morning. Vergil took the available documents, newspapers and overall information Lin had access to and placed them in a couple of boxes.

When he finally had three filled boxes to go through he gave both a sigh of relief and of soon to be fatigue. He was glad that they had so much information that pretty much led to nowhere at this point, but they had information and if there was one thing he knew how to do it was to single out the decent info from the rubbish.

"I'm off to work," Vergil picked up the boxes and left the headquarters. Instead of usual walk to the apartment he had his bike parked in front of the headquarters waiting for him to drive back home.

Vergil set the boxes down behind his seat, tied them to the bike and just when he was about to take a seat he saw an unpleasant sight.

One thing that the white haired male didn't feel like doing was talking to a certain councilman that clearly had intention of speaking to him, well if the fact that he heard his name being uttered by the man was anything to go by.

The man in question was a tall middle aged waterbender that spent too much time on looking presentable.

"Tarrlok. The hell are you doing here?" Vergil asked, he didn't like the councilman, not that he liked the other ones, out of the five councilors he could only say he had some respect for Tenzin, the man at least held to his ideals.

"Always a pleasure speaking with you Mr. Leonidas," Tarrlok gave him an utterly fake smile, one that made Vergil feel like punching him in the face.

"Can't say that the feeling is mutual," and there it was again, Vergil being blunt.

"As I see you are in a hurry how about we cut to the chase so to speak?" Tarrlok offered.

"How about we skip the details and get right into the part here I refuse whatever you have to tell me?" Vergil offered a better solution.

"Now, now. I know you want to help take down Amon as well," Tarrlok began.

"I won't help you in anything you might plan on doing," Vergil cut him off. "Been there, done that, don't want to try again," he made it perfectly clear to Tarrlok that the man was simply wasting his time.

However Tarrlok was just as stubborn about it as usual. "Maybe I could try to change your mind."

Suddenly Vergil grabbed the man's collar anger flashing in his eyes. "Listen up, last time we worked together it nearly cost me everything I care about, so get out of my sight," he didn't even want to remember what happened the last time Tarrlok got him to help him out.

"We wouldn't want to repeat that, now would we? You do have a point Mr. Leonidas. While your capabilities are much to be desired in task force with stopping Amon and his revolution as its objective it would be better for both of us if I gave up at this point," Tarrlok came to conclusion that he didn't want to be reminded of what happened either. It nearly cost him his place on the Council and frankly it was the only time he saw Tenzin that angered.

Vergil released the man's collar and calmed down. "Good. Now unless you have anything to speak about with Lin scram it," he said as he sat down on his bike and drove off.

Tarrlok could only fight back the need to teach the disrespectful male some manners, he could cause it now, just a little bit of intervention and an accident could kill Vergil, but knowing how resilient Vergil was he chose against it. Still, even with Vergil refusing to join him he still had one person that would jump at the chance to join the battle, or so he thought.

* * *

"We are grateful for this delicious food, for happiness, for compassion and," and as Tenzin was stating that at the dinner table Tarrlok walked in.

"I'm not interrupting, am I?" oh he most certainly did.

This is my home, Tarrlok. We are about to it dinner," Tenzin stood up, clearly the last thing he wanted was to deal with his fellow Councilman.

"Good, because I'm absolutely famished," and this of course made Tenzin narrow his eyes. "Airbenders never turn away a hungry guest, am I right?" the councilman was almost daring Tenzin to say otherwise.

"I suppose so," as Tenzin sat down he was met with a glare that his wife, Pema, sent him, he just shrugged in a 'What-can-I-do' fashion.

Tarrlok was quick to go up to Korra. "Ah, you must be the famous Avatar Korra."

At this Korra couldn't help but smile confidently.

"It is truly an honor. I am councilman Tarrlok, representative from the Northern Water Tribe," he introduced himself as politely as he could.

Korra stood up and offered him a light bow as a greeting. "Nice to meet you."

As soon as the two sat down Ikki bombarded him with questions. "Why do you have three ponytails?" she sniffed the air. "And how come you smell like a lady? You're weird."

Tarrlok put up with it though. "Well aren't you, precocious."

As Ikki glared at the man he turned to Korra. "So. I've been reading all about your adventures in papers. Infiltrating Amon's rally, now that took some real initiative."

"Oh, thanks," she paused for a moment due to not being used to this kind of reaction. "I think you are the first authority figure who's happy I'm here."

"Republic City is much better off now that you've arrived," he knew exactly what to say.

"Enough with the flattery, Tarrlok. What do you want from Korra?" Tenzin joined in on the conversation.

"Patience Tenzin. I'm getting to that," despite Tenzin's obvious disapproval Tarrlok continued. "As you may have heard, I am assembling a task force that will strike at the heart of the Revolution. And I want you to join me."

"Really?"

"What?"

It was clear that both Korra and Tenzin were surprised.

"I need someone who will help me attack Amon directly! Someone who is fearless in the face of danger! And that someone is you!" and he tried his best with the best words he thought could work.

"Join your task force?" Korra pondered on it for a moment. "I can't."

To say that Tarrlok and Tenzin were shocked would be an understatement.

"I must admit, I'm rather surprised. I thought you'd jump at the chance to help me lead the charge against Amon," Tarrlok admitted, as good as he was at hiding what he actually felt even he couldn't suppress the surprise.

"Me too," Tenzin admitted.

"I came to Republic City to finish my Avatar training with Tenzin. Right now I just need to focus on that," for once Korra was thankful her training wasn't going so well, it gave her more of an excuse to refuse and make sure she didn't face Amon yet. Or at all if she could help it.

"Which is why this opportunity is perfect. You would get on the job experience while performing your Avatar duty for the city," Tarrlok tried again.

"Korra gave you her answer. It's time for you to go," Tenzin interfered before Tarrlok could persuade Korra into joining.

"Very well. But I'm not giving up on you just yet, you'll be hearing from me soon. It has been a pleasure, Avatar Korra," Tarrlok began leaving.

"Bye bye ponytail man!" Ikki waved at him and the councilman suppressed showing any signs of his irritation.

* * *

If there were two things that remained constant for Korra during the week it was her fear from Amon and annoyance at receiving gifts from Tarrlok that ranged from flowers to brand new satomobiles. Eventually one thing led to another and at the moment she was at a press conference at the gala in her honor…

* * *

As Korra was digging her own grave by having a press conference the white haired male was outside. Despite the night being a bit cold he was outside of the restaurant. The weather allowed him to cover his white hair and scar with the appropriate clothing he wore at the moment. The hot tea in front of him served more as a distraction rather than enjoyment though he did quite enjoy it.

The reason why he was here? Well the Equalists had one of their bases where they trained chi-blockers here. Right there about twenty meters away from him and from this angle he could easily overlook it without being too suspicious.

Almost a week spent like this later he had a few faces and a bit of a schedule confirmed for this particular building.

"You seem to be quite regular around here," someone came up to him and he turned around to face one of the Equalists.

"You can't argue that tea here is one of the best in the city," Vergil said, he was doing a decent job at covering his scar by leaning onto the palm of his hand.

"And you spend hours at night sipping at it?" Equalist questioned suspiciously.

"We all have our own little occupations and hobbies, now don't we? Though do tell me, why would you be concerned about how I spend my time?" the cop inquired.

"I suppose you do have a point. I shouldn't worry about some lunatic's ways of spending time," with that the Equalist left and Vergil couldn't help but smirk. Unknowingly to him about an hour later he would begin cursing around the entire apartment he and Lin shared.

* * *

"Rewind that last part," Vergil requested as calmly as he could when he heard about Korra joining the task force.

"Are you going deaf? Avatar joined the task force," Lin repeated.

"Damn it. There goes my investigation," and he began pacing around like he always did when he was frustrated. Now normally the Avatar joining in would be amazing thing but the way Tarrlok planned on handling things they'd only do more damage and in turn they'd only take care of the small fries. He on the other hand planned on infiltrating once he took all the available information he could gather by observing. Well he could kiss it goodbye now.

"How much progress did you make anyway?" Lin asked, they haven't really spoken about it over the past few days, mostly because of the fact that the white haired male didn't have anything certain, up until now.

"Enough to say that I'm doing a good job. Amon is working gradually, I believe he made a close circle of a select few people and then went to gather small number of supporters on his own. Those two groups are probably making up Amon's most informed followers. In the inner circle we have Amon at the top and man named Lieutenant, he is seemingly the only one in Amon's closest inner circle but I'd say he also has someone powerful behind him to provide sources, either that or Amon himself has financial sources," there was the first thing and he began with what proved to be the most hypothetical observation. It was also the one that they couldn't do much about.

"The Equalists train chi-blockers at night; they are actually quite organized about it. They have groups at random locations, though usually in underground facilities. The tricky part is that the groups are never on the same place and the members of the groups are never the same. Say you have team A and team B and each team has three members. Member 1A, 2A, 3A, 1B, 2B and 3B. One night you'll have that order but the other night the members will mix by switching places of 2A and 3B members. Now imagine that kind of organization on a much larger scale of, as far as I've seen between ten and fifteen chi-blockers in one group."

"The locations are also quite random; you can't actually take the map of the city and say that there aren't any chi-blocker trainings going on in a certain area. One thing that does go in pretty much patterns is that the training can start around 9PM to 10PM and end around 2AM. Despite the switches in groups I managed to identify a couple of Equalists based on our data, none of them are criminals, well except for a parking ticket or two. All of these things would go much smoother if we didn't have the task force going in ready to fight and that could be our downfall," the young officer looked exhausted now that he was faced with the realization that everything he would have to do about this from now on would be twice as hard as he first thought it would be.

Lin, who has been taking in the information he had gathered, remained silent up until that point. "What else do you have to back up the downfall part?"

Vergil sighed, not liking what he was about to say. "Generally speaking Amon hasn't done anything specifically wrong. He had taken away the bending of criminals and thugs," he walked over to the window and looked at the city. "Non-benders see that and they are more willing to help him out. Unless something proves Amon to be a mere manipulator we might cause a riot by taking him down. And while the way he goes about it is questionable what he is aiming for isn't wrong. What can be done to make his influence a bit lower could be allowing the non-benders to join in some major decisions when it comes to the city. Of course we can increase the patrols around the city and get more thugs into the jail," Vergil stated and sighed again. He knew haw naïve that sounded, they could very well dig their own grave if they tried to mess with Council, at this point Amon could even use it against them if they tried that.

"So even if we defeat Amon we could lose," Lin leaned back against the chair.

"We would win the battle but lose the war. If non-benders rise and start a riot we will prove that Amon was right, just by trying to stop him in a violent way makes his cause right."

* * *

Even though the task force was seemingly doing a great job Vergil wasn't happy. "Just like I supposed, the damn task force is destroying everything that might lead me to something bigger than just a few chi-blockers in training," he tossed the newspapers to the table.

Lin ignored him pacing around in frustration, honestly she was feeling frustrated as well, Vergil has been making a progress in his investigation but it was being nullified by the task force.

' _Avatar Korra has bravely answered the call to action. With the two of us leading the charge, Republic City has nothing to fear from Amon and the Equalists._ '

"Great, just what I needed. Tarrlok's annoying voice to fix my mood," Vergil muttered but nonetheless kept listening.

' _Question for the Avatar. Amon remains at large. Why have you failed to locate him?_ '

' _You wanna know why? Because Amon is hiding in the shadows like a coward! Amon. I challenge you to a duel! No task force, no chi-blockers, just the two of us, tonight at midnight at Avatar Aang's Memorial Island. Let's cut to the chase and settle this thing. If you are man enough to face me._ '

Vergil couldn't help but smirk, if there was one thing he figured about Amon it was that the man wouldn't let this opportunity slide when it comes to gaining the mental edge over the Avatar.

"Can you get me a boat? I'm paying a visit to the Memorial Island," the smirk remained intact.

Lin looked at him, frowned at him but figured that there was nothing else they could do. The Avatar losing her bending was about as bad as things could get. "You better be careful," she reminded him.

"It's my best choice at the moment. Trust me; I can take care of myself," Vergil assured the older woman in a surprisingly soft tone.

"I'm going with you to the harbor," Lin decided.

The white haired male nodded, determined to get something out of this situation. "As long as I get to the Memorial Island alone I'm fine with that."

* * *

 _ **And that's it.**_

* * *

 _ **Answers on reviews:**_

 _ **Piemaster981 – Thank you for the review I'm happy to hear that.**_

 _ **Naroku – Thank you very much.**_

* * *

 _ **Next Chapter – Showdown At The Memorial Island 2**_


	4. Showdown At The Memorial Island 2

_**Chapter 4 – Showdown At The Memorial Island 2**_

* * *

Avatar Korra was standing in front of Aang's statue waiting for Amon. Suddenly she heard something behind her and turned around ready to fight, when she saw nothing she lowered her guard.

Clock informed the city of the time with a loud gong.

And of course being as scared as she was Korra yelped almost jumping out of her skin right then and there.

When the current Avatar realized what just happened she sighed. Taking a deep breath and puffing up her confidence was a must do at this point.

She turned to the city and waited, patiently, bravely…

* * *

As Tenzin and Tarrlok waited for anything to happen Lin walked up to them.

"So she is already there?" Lin cut to the chase startling both males.

"Lin?! What are you doing here?" Tenzin asked incredulously, the last thing he expected was for Lin to show up, even more so since she was on her own.

"Vergil is on the island as well. I'm waiting for him," Lin explained just for the heck of it.

"And why would he be there if we may know?" Tarrlok questioned.

"Vergil has been investigating the Equalists, he went to the island to face Amon," Lin felt no need to hide the facts as she kept close watch on the island.

* * *

Korra, who has been waiting for quite some time now stretched her body a bit and yawned. "Guess you're a no show Amon. Who's scared now?" she asked no one in particular. She stood up and was clearly intending to casually and carelessly stroll out with her arms raised behind her head.

A fatal mistake it would seem as she was caught off guard by a rope tying her legs and tripping her.

"Aah!" she exclaimed as she was pulled into the temple.

Korra regained her composure and burnt down the rope that was binding her only to find herself surrounded by chi-blockers, many of them. The darkness hid their presence and the shining red eyes were amongst the last things she clearly saw.

The attack was swift and effective. They disabled her arms by pulling them to the sides with ropes. Though she managed to fight off the ones in front of her by **Firebending** and **Earthbending** she couldn't protect her back and a couple of chi-blockers temporarily disabled her bending.

She lost consciousness and fell down.

Time passed as the Avatar lied down on the floor surrounded by the chi-blockers and exposed in her weakness by the light of the one simple lamp. She could do nothing as two chi-blockers pulled her to her knees and restrained her arms; she was helplessly giving in to their hold. Korra wasn't the one to easily take defeat and give up but she was powerless.

Her breathing was heavy as she raised her head and looked in front of her, what she saw made her gasp. Amon walked out of the darkness and her fear intensified.

"I received your invitation young Avatar," Amon's voice was cold and terrifying to Korra who could only look away as his hand approached her.

Still, instead of taking her bending away he grabbed her chin and made her turn her head back to him.

"Our showdown, while inevitable, is premature. Although it would be the simplest thing to take away your bending right now," at those words Korra's eyes widened, she was unaware of someone else watching the scene, but that was fine, so was Amon. And that someone would interfere if needed. "…I won't. You'll only become a martyr," Amon removed his hand and Korra looked down. "Benders of every nation would rally behind your untimely demise."

She somehow found it in herself to glare at him.

"But I assure you, I have a plan and I'm saving you for last, then you'll get your duel," he assured her calmly, his voice as cold as it always was. And is eyes, that look sent shiver down her spine.

Defiance was once again replaced by fear.

"And I will destroy you," he stood up and knocked her out with one precise hit. She grunted as she fell down to the floor once again. Her vision was blurry but she saw Amon and then she heard an unknown voice calling Amon's name thus making the Equalist leader look up. Then she fainted not even knowing if what she witnessed in the moments of losing consciousness was true.

But it was.

"I figured I'd make my presence known before you walk away," he was there, they couldn't see him but he was sitting in the main construction of the temple's roof.

Amon remained silent; he knew where the voice was coming from so he knew that he was looking at whoever was there with them.

"Don't force your eyes so much, I'm coming down anyway," Vergil jumped down and landed right in front of Amon. White haired male's smirk was the first thing Amon saw, the second thing was a lightning fast fist directed right to his face. Still the Equalist leader blocked the punch, though he couldn't exactly nullify it as the force behind it pushed him back a few steps.

Amon remained unfazed despite the received punch. But, he narrowed his eyes; this man was trouble if what just happened was anything to go by. Despite what he did he barely blocked the punch.

"Eh, not bad," Vergil complimented him honestly and then ducked under the rope; the chi-blockers were ready to interfere as well.

Vergil slipped into the shadows, away from Korra's unconscious form; he didn't feel like protecting her so he at least put her out of the direct line of fire by moving away.

Though the chi-blockers remained alert they only realized where the white haired male was when he stepped back into the light, though this time the source of light was the moonlight.

Without waiting for the direct order chi-blockers charged at Vergil who smirked as he took one of his wooden swords and pointed it at the first chi-blocker in front of him, he ignored the circle formation and dashed at the one in front of him.

Despite having a wooden blade in his left hand he didn't use it, he found no need to attack, only to defend if needed. He swept away a rope that was thrown at him and tripped the chi-blocker in front of him. Said chi-blocker was knocked out with a simple punch in the guts. Grinning he used his right palm as a footing to kick away two chi-blockers and then push himself up in the air. A hand shot toward his neck but he grabbed it and threw the male down before elbowing another one.

"How about we get to the main part, Amon?" Vergil taunted and though the taunt wasn't what made Amon charge at him the two finally clashed.

The Equalist Leader charged at Vergil who took the other wooden sword and sliced at the Amon just as he was closing in, masked man effortlessly slipped by the two slices and almost connected a fist with Vergil's abdomen. He would have done so if Vergil didn't slide to the side. Vergil attempted to kick him, but like with previous attacks Amon jumped over the leg and being slightly out of balance Vergil was forced to kick away from his current position. They were both quite agile, that much was clear.

Two opponents looked into each other's eyes and Vergil broke the staring contest by pointing one of the blades at Amon and dashing forward, the intention of the attack was to stab, perhaps even kill but Amon easily dodged It. Knowing that the blades were a bit of a problem Amon locked down Vergil's right arm and made the male drop the wooden blade, or so he thought.

Vergil kicked the blade back up and while doing so attempted to kick Amon as well.

Amon jumped back and halted for a moment. "It would seem we both underestimated one another," Amon finally spoke.

The white haired male smirked, eager to continue the battle. "I guess. You are better than I expected," Vergil agreed.

"But out duel ends now," Amon made a sudden change in his fighting style and instead of charging up ahead to Vergil he made swift yet elegant motions, the small movement allowing the body to react and block or dodge was clear intention.

Vergil smirked once more and put his blades away.

Amon finally closed in just enough for Vergil to throw a punch. The Equalist Leader stepped to the side and grabbed the officer's forearm. "Now you're just underestimating me," Vergil pulled his arm and then abruptly slammed it into Amon's chest. The man jumped back to lower the impact and Vergil followed right away.

It looked like Vergil let the anger blind him as he threw a punch at Amon, one that the man easily ducked under. And then he saw a smirk appearing on Vergil's face.

' _A feint_.' Amon realized just in time to roll to the side to escape the quick kick.

Vergil refused to stop at that moment; he dashed toward Amon and connected his left fist with the abdomen of the leader.

Amon grunted barely loud enough for Vergil to hear him, but being resilient as he was Amon wasn't giving up and neither was Vergil.

Amon just stepped to the side lightly as Vergil tried to punch him. Amon aimed to stab Vergil in the neck with his fingers but a growl and lightning quick reaction to slap his hand away was all he got. Amon blocked the punch with his elbow, pushed the white haired male away and kneed him in the abdomen. Vergil skidded back, blocked a left hook and jumped out of the way of the right uppercut.

Amon's eyes were still narrowed as he sped up his advances, but no matter where he targeted only a few hits actually connected. To make matters worse as his fist connected with the side of Vergil's face his opponent went and punched him in the stomach.

"I suppose offering you a place in my ranks is futile," Amon stated as they both stepped back.

Vergil smirked and wiped the blood on his chin away, the punch to the face was really going to leave a bruise. "I'd be walking right into a trap. You did your homework, I'm sure you know I'd sabotage you in every way I can."

Amon couldn't help but smirk behind the mask. "You're a troublesome opponent, I'll admit that. Perhaps we will have to continue this fight some other time. Tonight is not that time. After all you didn't come here to take me down."

"Can't say I'd mind if I did, but no, at the moment go ahead and leave," he suddenly pulled his sword out and dashed, stopping right in front of Amon. The killer intent clear in his eyes as the edge of his sword touched Amon's neck. "But keep in mind this could have chopped your head off. I'm letting you leave."

Amon chuckled. "Fair enough, Vergil Leonidas," he turned around and began walking away, his Equalists, stunned as they were, followed him.

Vergil dropped his stance, it was over, Amon was gone and so were his Equalists. Still the spar that occurred was just what Vergil needed, insight on how Amon fights and for that he couldn't help but smirk. The white haired male turned around and saw the Avatar lying on the floor unconscious in the dim light of the lamp.

He sighed as he walked up to the girl. She had a long way to go. Korra might never find out but he saw the entire thing, from her falling into the trap set by Equalists all the way to Amon knocking her out unconscious. Why he didn't help her sooner? Well he would have if Amon tried to take her bending away, however as it seemed like there was no danger of that happening he allowed himself a peak at her abilities and was greatly disappointed.

The white haired male leaned down and picked Korra up bridal style. He caught himself looking curiously at her face for a couple of seconds before turning his attention to thinking through the events of the night.

Korra didn't wake up when he set her down into her own boat and she didn't wake up during his paddling to the harbor with the paddle he previously left at the shore.

"Korra!" Tenzin exclaimed when the boat approached.

"Don't lose your head now, Tenzin. She's fine and she didn't lose her bending, she's just unconscious and needs some rest," Vergil scolded him and then turned to Lin. "Went better than I expected," he kept it at that, no way in hell would he spill anything in front of Tarrlok.

"Good," Lin nodded but hid the relief she felt at seeing him uninjured, well aside from a few bruises. "Tenzin, we'll leave the Avatar to you."

"Of course. Lin, Vergil, thank you," Tenzin bowed lightly. He couldn't even start to describe how relieved he was.

Vergil returned the gesture and then he and Lin left.

Without much delay Tenzin made sure Korra got back home to the Air Temple Island.

* * *

Once Lin and Vergil arrived to their apartment Vergil sat down on the couch. "I've got a couple of good and a couple of bad news. Which ones do you want to hear first?" he gave her an option to choose as he pressed a bag of ice to his cheek.

"Just tell me what you've got, it doesn't matter which order you pick," Lin said, she took a seat as well, but on the sofa.

"Well bad thing is that Korra is a decent fighter but she is too inexperienced and careless, if she wants to stand against Amon she'll need to be a bit better at fighting," the white haired male began.

"Doesn't surprise me, training can only get you so far," Lin commented knowing that even if Korra was being taught by some of the best benders she most certainly didn't get enough training in plain hand-to-hand combat.

Vergil nodded agreeing completely with her. "Well, good thing is that Amon isn't better at hand to hand combat than me so in that aspect I can prepare Korra to take him on or do so myself in needed. Amon is a good strategist; that much we knew from the start but this proved it. His fighting style reflects on that as well. He might seem like he is rushing in at first but he is actually going for the fear and psychological edge over the opponent. His movements are fluid and he quickly adapts to opponent's fighting style, not to mention that he is surprisingly resilient. So yeah, we are dealing with a tough opponent that can be defeated," Vergil cut to the point and revealed the most important things he got out of this encounter.

Lin pondered on his words, once again the white haired male managed to prove that he was capable of doing his job better than most veterans. His specialty lied in war and overall combat tactics, given his age the accuracy and confidence behind his words and actions was another layer of mystery, the seventeen years Lin knew just a small bit about were the answer.

* * *

The images flashed in Korra's mind, her past life, Aang was trying to tell her something if the images of an unknown man, Toph Beifong and the Avatar of that time himself were anything to go by, but it wasn't enough to spark some realization in her. She woke up in her bed just when Tenzin walked in.

His eyes widened when he saw that she was awake. "Korra! Korra are you alright?" the Airbender asked her worriedly as he went to her side.

Korra sat up.

"Did, did Amon take your bending away?" he had to hear it from Korra as well.

Young Avatar made flame appear at her palm to prove that she still had her bending. "No. I'm okay."

Tenzin released the breath he had been holding up until that moment. "Oh, thank goodness."

Korra finally let her emotions through as tears streamed down her face and she clung onto Tenzin. "I was so terrified! I felt so helpless."

Tenzin reached out to her to comfort her. "It's all right. The nightmare is over," he assured her.

Korra backed away. "You, you were right. I've been scared this whole time and I don't know what to do!"

"Admitting your fears is the first and most difficult step in overcoming them," Tenzin said as she cried in his arms.

Finally calming down after crying her heart out Korra couldn't help bus ask. "Did you get me back here?"

"Only from the harbor. Vergil was the one who brought you back to the harbor," Tenzin replied and Korra nodded but then realized that the name never came up before.

"Vergil? Who is that?"

"You already know him, in a way. He is the white haired male that was with Lin back when you first came to the city," Tenzin referred back to the time Korra was at the station.

Korra certainly didn't see that many white haired people around her age so it was easy to remember him. "The one with a scar? Who is he anyways? Didn't seem much like a cop to me."

"He doesn't wear uniform but I assure you that he is a part of the police. I don't know much but Lin found him unconscious three years ago and from that point on he has been living with her," Tenzin explained but he just confused Korra more.

"Why would anyone want to live with her?" now Korra had met the woman in question a couple of times, none of which ended on pleasant terms and she found no answer as to how a sane person could live with the Chief of Police for three years.

"Lin can be a bit… challenging at times, but she isn't all that bad," Tenzin tried to defend the woman in question.

"Suuure," Korra dragged the word out on purpose clearly showing that she wasn't convinced. "But why? It's not like he couldn't go back to his parents or something."

Tenzin looked down and Korra felt a bit bad for asking that. "Maybe he can't. I don't know his story to be frank, and I think Lin is the only one who knows. All I can do is assume that he either left his parents or that he no longer has them."

Korra remained silent, not really knowing how to deal with answers like that. The one in question wasn't present so she couldn't actually apologize.

"Anyway as Lin told me Vergil has been doing a bit of an investigation on his own, which is why he went to the Memorial Island in the first place. He got into a fight at the very least with the chi-blockers, if not with Amon himself," Tenzin decided to change the topic.

"What about his bending?" Korra felt somewhat alarmed at that.

"Never had one. He is a non-bender," and this of course shocked her but at the same time made her even more intrigued about the white haired male.

* * *

Having a busy night never came with proper rest the following morning when it came to Chief of Police and as she was buried in paperwork she heard her doors opening. By now she didn't even need Seismic Sense to recognize the male's footsteps, light on his feet but steady.

Vergil walked up to her table and lowered a cup, filled with black coffee, strong, just the way she liked it.

"I'll never understand how you can drink this abomination of a drink, but to each their own," Vergil grinned slightly, it wasn't his usual confident, even somewhat cocky smirk, it was just a plain and simple happy grin.

Lin rolled her eyes at that and shook her head slightly. Frankly, the coffee was exactly what she needed.

The two simply shared a small smile between one another and the boy Lin saved three years ago went back to continue with his job.

* * *

 _ **And that's it. I didn't want Vergil to save Korra, or even help her out, to me it would feel too forced for him to do so. They will meet officially in the next chapter since I don't want them to meet in these circumstances either.**_

* * *

 _ **Answers on reviews:**_

 _ **Piemaster981 – Thank you.**_

 _ **Incarnate47 – Thank you very much for the review, I don't want to spoil the answer to whether or not that happens in this chapter.**_

 _ **Naroku – Thanks for the review.**_

 _ **bambino01 – Thank you for the review. Yeah, he is, I'll get into that later on in the story.**_

* * *

 _ **Next Chapter – Pro-Bending Finals**_


	5. Pro-Bending Finals 1

_**Chapter 5 – Pro-Bending Finals**_

* * *

The Pro-bending team Fire Ferrets was in the arena training for their final match of the season. The underdogs of the tournament that reached the finals, it was a miracle and now they only had one opponent to face and defeat in order to become the champions.

"Man I've got a great feeling about tonight, I don't care if we are the underdogs we can take those pompous Wolfbats," Korra said to her teammates Mako and Bolin.

"It'll be our toughest match ever but I think you're right," Mako took off his helmet and Bolin quickly placed his left arm around his brother's shoulders.

"Introducing your new champs! The fantastic Fire Ferrets!" Bolin mimicked the voice of the tournament's commentator.

Korra was in a good mood, but that seemed to change when the dreaded voice spoke through the radio.

' _Good morning, citizens of Republic City. This is Amon, I hope you all enjoyed the last night's pro-bending because it will be the last. It's time for this city to stop worshiping the bending athletes as if they were heroes. I am calling on the Council to shut down the bending arena and cancel the finals, or else there will be severe consequences._ '

That was the message he had for the city.

"That guy's got some nerve," Bolin huffed, seriously, from the moment that guy showed up in Korra's life she couldn't catch a break and now it seemed to be affecting even more people.

"You think the Council will give in?" Mako asked the only person who could perhaps know the answer between the three of them.

"I'm not waiting to find out; we need to get to the city hall," Korra decided and so they did.

* * *

Korra opened the doors and pretty much barged into a meeting with Mako and Bolin right behind her.

Tenzin stood up. "Korra you shouldn't be here, this is a closed meeting."

"As the Avatar and a pro-bending player I have the right to be heard. You can't cancel the finals," Korra cut down to the chase right away.

"I know winning the championship means a lot to you but as far as I'm concerned we need to shut the arena down," Tenzin stood firm to his belief.

"What about the rest of you? Tarrlok, there's no way you are backing down from Amon, right?" she tried to get the support from one of the rare people who wanted to fight Amon.

"Actually, Tenzin and I agree for once," Tarrlok stood up as well, his statement surprising the young Avatar.

"The Council is unanimous, we are closing the arena," Tenzin stated firmly.

"No!"

"You can't!"

Mako and Bolin had pretty much the same reaction.

"I don't understand, I thought you of all people would take a stand against Amon," Korra reminded the Waterbender.

"While I am still committed to bringing that lunatic to justice I will not put innocent lives at stake just so you and your friends can play, a game," Tarrlok put an emphasis on the word game and more importantly he may have, whether it was consciously or not, placed safety of others above what he wanted to get done.

Mako stepped forward. "Pro-bending might be just a game to you, but think of what it means to the city. Right now the arena is one place where benders and non-benders gather together in, in peace to watch benders-"

"Beat each other up!" and Bolin said the truth that might have ruined Mako's potential argument against closing the arena… "In peace! It's an inspiration to everyone!"

"I appreciate your naïve idealism but you are ignoring the reality of the situation." Tarrlok stated, he didn't have patience or desire to deal with them right now.

"The reality is, if you close the arena you let Amon win," Korra argued fiercely.

"Yes! Exactly what she said! Yes!" Bolin completely agreed with her.

"I'm sorry but our decision has been made. This meeting is adjourned," Tarrlok was about to end it by slamming the mallet down but it was torn into two by a metal cable.

As everyone turned around Korra recognized the white haired male standing next to Lin. It was hard to forget the white hair and the scar on his face after all. Some time passed after the incident at the Memorial Island and this was the first time she saw him despite thinking about paying a visit to the Police HQ just to thank him. She never did because of the woman standing right there next to him. Really, she didn't feel like walking into Lin Beifong anytime soon.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but I agree with the Avatar," Lin said surprising pretty much everyone.

"You do?" Tarrlok asked flabbergasted.

"Yeah, you do?" Korra was probably more surprised than anyone else.

"I expected this kind of cut and run response from Tenzin, but the rest of you? Come on. Show a little more backbone," she challenged them much to Tenzin's annoyance, especially due to her comment. "It's time that the benders of this city display some strength and unity against these Equalists."

"We must prevent the conflict between benders and non-benders from escalating into all-out war. The Council is not changing its position Lin," Tenzin declared.

Tarrlok pondered on it for a moment. This could provide him with a perfect opportunity. "Now just a moment, Tenzin. Let us hear what our esteemed Chief of Police has in mind," he gave Lin a chance to speak and Tenzin gave up but stilled folded his arms to show his displeasure at this.

"If you keep the arena open, my Metalbenders, Vergil and I, will provide extra security during the championship match. There's no better force to deal with the chi-blockers. Our armor is impervious to their attacks," Lin assured them confidently.

"Especially if you keep your hands out of this Tarrlok," Vergil added matter-of-factly.

Tarrlok felt his eyebrow twitch at that but ignored the comment that left Fire Ferrets confused. "Are you saying that you will personally take responsibility for the safety of the spectators in the arena?" those who paid attention couldn't help but notice that Tarrlok was plotting something and Vergil was one of them. A slight glare right at Tarrlok was clearly noticed by the Waterbender, though he paid it no mind.

"I guarantee it," Lin promised without a slightest hint of hesitation or uncertainty.

"It is hard to argue with Chief Beifong's track record and Mr. Leonidas has only failed to complete his task twice, besides that he's got a flawless career," Tarrlok said and then turned to the other Council members. "If she is confident that her elite officers can protect the arena then she has my support. I am changing my vote, who else is with me?" and of course everyone besides Tenzin raised their hands.

Tenzin shook his head, this was going to end badly, he could almost guarantee it.

"The arena stays open. Good luck in the finals," Tarrlok's words caused a cheer from the Fire Ferrets.

"Alright!"

"Yes!"

"Thank you!"

"And good luck to you too, Chief Beifong," Tarrlok added.

"A word please, Lin," Tenzin told her when he passed by the woman.

Lin turned to look at him but followed none the less.

"Korra, you should come to the Police HQ, there's something I should show you," Vergil said and without waiting for any response, he left the city hall.

* * *

Korra was finally in front of the Police HQ she took a deep breath and braced herself. Lin took her side and everything but she didn't feel like going inside so casually.

"What are you standing there for? Shouldn't you be preparing for the finals?" and of course one person that was going to find her standing there would be the Chief herself.

"Uh, I… Vergil told me to come here, something about showing me something…?" Korra tried to explain.

Lin sighed as a feeling of slight headache overcame her, clearly Vergil had something planned but that didn't mean Lin approved of Korra being directly involved. "Come on then, follow me."

The walk through the HQ went quietly and finally Korra was led to the doors right next to Lin's personal office.

"He's inside," Lin said and left Korra standing in front of the white haired male's office doors.

"I didn't think he had an office," Korra muttered to herself but then remembered that Vergil lived with Lin, of course he'd be high up in the Police. She knocked on the doors and waited for reply which came quite quickly.

"Come on in," she heard his voice and opened the doors. What she found inside surprised her; Vergil had boards with information written all over them.

"I've been investigating Amon and the Equalists for quite some time now. Well I've been doing it from home for some time but I ran out of space and moved into this office. Thought most of what you see here is more of a counter for him," Vergil nonchalantly stated when he noticed the way she looked at the boards.

"Tarrlok was right; with this much you must have a flawless career," Korra said feeling nothing short of amazement as she looked around.

"I'd hardly call this flawless, all I have here is vague and nothing too specific to go head first to someone and say. 'Hey you are working with Amon.' I ran a background check on all big names in the city and I can clear most of them out, but those that I can't still take positions that are too high for me to barge in without a concrete evidence, not to mention that there are still too many of those I can't rule out to make a narrow list of two or three people," Vergil sighed once he gave her a run-down on most of the things he had.

"Why the big names?" Korra couldn't help but ask.

He looked at her, contemplating on whether to let her figure it out on her own. In the end he chose to reply. "Because Amon needs financial sources. I can say that none of them are Amon himself, but someone must be helping him."

The Avatar raised an eyebrow at that. "Why would anyone want to help Amon anyway?"

"Amon did more good for the non-benders than any Council member or officer. The way he goes about it might be wrong but what he did was for the most part good for society," Vergil grumbled and then turned to Korra once more. "I called you here to talk to you about his fighting style. You'll sooner or later be in the direct line of fire and if there is something that can be done to lower the risks then we should do it."

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you much, I never fought him," Korra apologized.

"I did. Well it was more of a spar but it'll do at this point," his words brought back the memories.

' _Anyway as Lin told me Vergil has been doing a bit of an investigation on his own, which is why he went to the Memorial Island in the first place. He got into a fight at the very least with the chi-blockers, if not with Amon himself.'_

"About that. Thank you for helping me," Korra bowed slightly.

Vergil just shrugged it off. "Nah, there's nothing to thank me for. I was there to get information, not to help you, so you shouldn't be thanking me," the bluntness of his response surprised her.

"You still brought me back to the harbor," the Avatar reminded him.

"Just as anyone else would have. Trust me; you won't be thanking me after this conversation is over," casually he walked over to one of the boards.

"Amon is a close range fighter, which seems reasonable given the fact that he is supposedly a non-bender. What I want you to do when you encounter him again is to be ready for anything, for all you know he might start **Airbending** out of blue, the ability to take away someone's bending, the ability that only the Avatar had up until now. I don't know how but if he really is a non-bender then he certainly ain't a normal human," Vergil addressed the most important problem when it came to Amon himself. "Besides the obvious use of his ability he is also using it as a fear factor, something that you yourself can vouch for and his actual fighting style is quite fluid, he adapts quickly and can take a hit. But the biggest problem we have here is you."

"Me? How am I a problem?" Korra took offense to that, great, this was their first time talking and he was getting on her nerves.

He smirked at that. "You are a decent fighter at best."

She has been praised for mastering the physical side of bending she has always excelled at the physical side of anything and here was someone telling her that she is decent at best?

"You've only seen me fight once!" Korra argued furiously.

"And that's all I need to see. Look at yourself, you have a short fuse, you are easy to provoke and you lack skill needed to stand up to Amon in hand to hand aspect of combat. All in all you are more of an amateur than an actual combatant," it sounded like he was scolding a child, explaining why it wasn't the best idea to do something stupid.

"Like you are any better! If you were so skilled you would have captured Amon!" she tried to retaliate by blaming him instead.

Still, he merely smirked once more; amused by the way she reacted. "While it is true that I couldn't capture Amon that has pretty much nothing to do with your situation and if you do want to know I had an upper hand in that fight."

Korra glared at him.

"For any action you have to take consequences, that's why you could have lost your bending. You ignored the consequences and tried to prove it to people that you were brave enough to face Amon. When there is something important don't barge in head first, take a step back and think. Is barging in really the best choice you have? Take your time sometimes, patience isn't what I'm asking from you, I'm asking you to learn how to think things through. For your own sake," Vergil said and took a paper from his deck. He handed it to Korra who albeit still angry glanced at it. It was a list with her name at the top.

"And this is?" she questioned as she stared at the list.

"The only structure of Amon's plan I have so far. The crossed ones are already accomplished."

Korra saw 'Inner-circle', 'Support', 'Chi-blockers', 'Followers' and 'Pro-bending' crossed. Above that were 'Police', 'Council', 'Republic City' and 'Korra'

Vergil sat down. "He already entered the mid stage of his plan, with tonight's events he'll achieve almost everything needed to get to the endgame… If we fail the faith in Police and Lin's position as the Chief will be at stake, we'll have one chance at best to regain the trust of the citizens," Vergil's voice became a tad bit softer, almost concerned.

"But you already crossed out pro-bending," Korra pointed out.

"Because this is a losing battle, Tarrlok is playing Lin, baiting her to fail so he can put someone else in her position or whatever else. We actually lost the moment we kept the arena open. Even with all the police force we can't identify the enemies so they can still sneak in as a part of the audience," the white haired male leaned back into his chair and looked at the ceiling.

"Closing the arena is what Amon wants!" Korra argued.

"Quite the opposite actually. Because with the arena open he can take the bending of the champion team and prove that pretty much no bender can stand against him. Once again it's a game of fear," Korra hated to admit it but he was right… Amon could do it.

"And you still say that I am the biggest problem," she muttered feeling hurt because with all the problems that were obvious he still thought she was the biggest one.

"Because you are. If we lose the Avatar due to her not knowing how to use her head it'll affect everything. Benders will lose faith, nations might attack but they'll never send someone strong enough out of fear that they might lose them; your loss signals the victory of Amon's revolution. To them you are the Avatar, they don't care about anything else, and Avatar is the strongest of them all."

"But I am the Avatar; it's my duty to fight Amon," gradually she calmed down.

"You are first of all Korra, and then you are the Avatar. Just because the world sees you as the Avatar it doesn't mean I have to as well. As far as I am concerned you are Korra, nothing more, nothing less," He made it clear, that's all she would ever be to him, Korra and for nothing in the world would he look at her as the Avatar. Avatar title, sure, he'd take it into account for overall impact of whatever happened to her, but on a personal level he just didn't care about it.

"You don't care about me being an Avatar?" Korra asked, this kind of approach was something she only saw Lin have so far. Everyone else had at least one bit of a thought about her being an Avatar. White Lotus, Tenzin, Tarrlok, none of them would come into her life if she wasn't the Avatar. Over time she just came to accept that being the Avatar came before being Korra. Hell, Bolin showed her just what kind of reaction it causes and even Mako stopped being completely rude to her when she revealed it.

"Avatar isn't even on my list of priorities. To be frank you are one of my last priorities but you are still somewhat of a priority so take it how you will," and now he confused her.

"If I wasn't the Avatar you wouldn't have called me here," Korra pointed out.

"Well you being the Avatar did get you into the entire mess so you have a point, if you weren't the Avatar I wouldn't call you because you probably wouldn't be involved with this. We can go back and forth on 'what ifs' but the point is that I don't care about you being the Avatar," Vergil kept the eye contact, she had calmed down, when provoked she was quick to act but if the one provoking her didn't back away she could gradually calm down as the conversation kept going.

"So to get back to the point of me calling you here. What you need is a bit of training in close combat, you need to learn how to fight when you are at a disadvantage, when you can't bend or when you are partially bound. Once you learn how to fight decently in these situations you'll see the progress in actual combat without the disadvantages," Vergil stated thus igniting the flame of anger yet again.

"And I take it you can teach me?" her voice gave away the anger that was building up yet he ignored it.

"I can and if you want me to I will," they were polar opposites, that much was clear, she was a bender, he was a non-bender, she was quick to anger, he never lost his cool during the conversation, she acted before thinking, he did the opposite.

Before she could answer they were interrupted by Lin opening the doors. "Vergil, it's time to go."

Leonidas glanced at Korra one more time, the slight anger in her eyes told him that the conversation wouldn't go anywhere until he showed her that he could fight, so he decided to leave it at that. "Good luck tonight," he said and walked out of the room.

Korra sighed when he closed the doors, he didn't tell her to leave so she didn't, she was left alone with all the information written around her. She looked around and saw the blueprints of the arena and all the places that needed to be covered on one board, other board had the more detailed version of the paper he gave her, the elements were the same but he had written down the reasons behind every element written down. Moving on she found the results of his investigation of the chi-blocker training sequences. Finally she found the newspaper articles and information provided by other sources on two boards. Final board consisted of a short summary of the case.

The way he phrased it wasn't the regular police work as far as she could tell.

* * *

 _Main target: Amon_

 _-Close combat, strategist, psychological edge via fear, ability to take bending away._

 _-Potentially a bender._

 _-Good manipulator._

 _Potential suspects: Iknik Blackstone Varrick, Lau Gan-Lan, Hiroshi Sato, entire Council, top of the police._

 _-The only ones with enough financial and influential power to aid Amon._

 _Target of the enemy: Republic City, Korra, benders._

* * *

The board had a few more information written down on it but Korra was utterly surprised by the fact that he had written down the 'top of the police' on the suspect list. Korra looked at the rest of the room, a marker on the table, a few sheets of paper and a chair. Finally a small table with a case file on it in the corner of the room.

She walked up to it and picked it up, she was about to open it.

"Put it down," Lin's commanding voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she almost dropped the case file. "You finished your conversation, leave," there was something more abrasive in Lin's voice, more than usual.

Korra set the file down and looked at Lin. "What is this?" she asked, this was the only thing that seemed out of place, the only case file in the room and Lin told her not to touch it, it looked like it wasn't related to Amon.

"It's none of your concerns," the response was clear and simple.

Korra sighed and once again followed Lin down the same route they arrived before. "Why did he put the police on the suspect list?" she felt the need to ask.

"Because that might be true. Vergil doesn't look at things from perspective of sides but rather of chances, everyone who has a chance to get in contact with Amon is a suspect to some extent, that being said he is my primary suspect," Lin replied further puzzling the girl next to her.

"Don't you trust him?" Korra questioned.

"Keep your nose out of other people's business," Lin ended the conversation.

* * *

-Flashback-

This method began the first time Vergil investigated a more important case more or less on his own.

"I don't want to look at people and dismiss everything they might do. I want to keep my eyes open to change in behavior, because comrades, friends, family, no matter who it is under the right circumstances they can turn against you, even if it's to protect you," that was his explanation when she saw her name on the suspect list.

"So I am a suspect because I can keep silent about the information or give you the fake ones," Lin understood it but it still irked her to see her name there.

"That's the gist of it. That's why I want you to think of me that way as well and if I, under any circumstances, close my eyes and allow myself to act against my principles I trust you to put a stop to it. No matter what you have to do," his request was clear if he changed sides and aided the enemy she was the one he gave the right to stop him.

-Flashback ends-

* * *

And to this day she never had to even think of doing anything, she just kept observing his patterns, his usual behavior and felt assured that he wouldn't cross the line and aid what he stood against.

* * *

 _ **And that's it.**_

* * *

 _ **Answers on reviews:**_

 _ **Naroku – Thank you.**_

 _ **bambino01 – Thank you.**_

 _ **Incarnate47 – Thanks for the review, at the moment I don't think he will, at least not any time soon.**_

* * *

 _ **Next Chapter – Pro-bending Finals 2**_


	6. Pro-Bending Finals 2

_**Chapter 6 – Pro-Bending Finals 2**_

* * *

Amon was looking over the Equalists as they loaded the trucks when Lieutenant approached him.

"I just got word. The Council defied your threat. They are keeping arena open." He informed.

"Perfect. Everything is going according to plan." Amon said, perhaps more to himself.

"About Vergil Leonidas." Lieutenant began and Amon turned his attention back to his right hand man. "We failed to find out more about him. It's almost like he doesn't exist and we checked everything. The oldest data on him is hospital record from three years ago."

"Intriguing. Perhaps he underwent a plastic surgery." Amon concluded. "Although if such thing did happen he'd most likely live a quiet life, he certainly wouldn't go around working for the Police and he certainly wouldn't live with Chief of Police." No matter how much he thought about it he couldn't find a solid explanation for the lack of information available on the white haired male. For now he let it go, he'd probably encounter the non-bender tonight as well.

* * *

Lin and Vergil were standing in the corridor of the arena observing the police officers as they searched the arena for anything suspicious.

"Are you sure you can keep working in that office?" Lin asked out of blue.

"It's actually motivating me, the quicker I get this over with the quicker I can lock it down once again." It was his office, the one he had earned for solving the numerous cases, but half a year ago he broke his track record by failing to solve a murder case. As a reminder of his failure he only used the office as a last resort for finding peace and quiet to think things through. The most bitter reminder of the failure was the case file resting in the room.

"You should at the very least get that case file out of the room. Anyone can open it." Lin informed him.

"We've already talked about this; I'm keeping it in the office." Vergil stated. He sighed and looked around. "This area seems to be fine, I'll go and check out the emergency exits and the roof."

Lin nodded and the white haired male turned around to leave.

As he went through the corridor, he saw the **Airbending** Master. Vergil nodded to greet the man and Tenzin returned the gesture.

After about an hour of searching Vergil found an emergency stairway that led to the roof. Smirking he went on to climb and in three minutes he found himself on the glass roof of the arena. "Well ain't this convenient."

* * *

As the teams got introduced Vergil found a place at one of the lower levels of the stands, he was standing near one of the exits and leaning against the fence as he observed the Fire Ferrets with mild interest. He had to admit though, the small introduction the fire ferret and the **Earthbender** Bolin did was amusing, especially when compared to the entrance Wolfbats had.

Now Vergil wasn't that much of a pro-bending fan, but he turned all of his attention to Korra and her team if for no other reason than to see how prepared they are.

First round made it blatantly obvious that the Wolfbats were cheating. A hosing foul or however it was called was just one of the many and it was clear that the refs were paid off to turn a blind eye to it. As for the Fire Ferrets Leonidas was somewhat impressed. Korra managed to pull and throw Mako, who was taller and heavier than her so he found the feat, especially at that height to be impressive.

Second round was where they really gave it their all, Fire Ferrets went and got a tie breaker despite Wolfbats breaking the rules and finally the white haired male had something to use as a base for judging their abilities. Korra was fierce, prone to strike and quick to dodge. Mako had a cool head and by the human standards amazing reflexes. Finally Bolin proved to be quite relentless in standing his ground.

Tiebreaker proved him right about Korra, she was a fierce fighter and she didn't hold back the punches, in fact she blasted off Tahno's helmet all the way to the stands.

Third and decisive round was over quite quickly due to Wolfbats illegally mixing rocks into the water and getting a knockout thus winning the championship.

A few seconds passed and the years of strict discipline proved their worth yet again as the white haired male ducked under a metal glove charged with electricity.

"Right into the trap, eh?" He grinned and planted his elbow into the Equalist's abdomen. Truthfully he was concerned, electricity was dangerous thing to have at disposal, and he'd know it, prior to getting here he relished in the tingling sense of lightning. That however remained in the past and unless he had a death wish it should remain in the past.

Looking around he realized that he wasn't worried for nothing, Equalists had electrocuted most if not all of the officers and he knew what their next step would be, the Avatar. In the midst of the panic he pulled out his wooden swords and prepared to jump from the stands.

"Stop right there!" Now he didn't need to do so but since the Equalist asked him so nicely he decided to give him a minute or two, looking over his shoulder he saw a masked Equalist with that electrifying glove on his right hand.

"What do you want?" He nonchalantly asked.

"You are a non-bender right? Why are you helping the benders?" Equalist asked, judging by his voice and the questions he asked Vergil figured he was dealing with someone young, maybe a bit younger than him.

"I feel like doing so. Why are you working with Amon?" He didn't mean to irritate the Equalist, he was just being honest.

Equalist swallowed his frustration. "Because he'll change the world. He'll bring the equality."

The response quite frankly seemed like a product of brainwashing and a case of 'lie repeated one hundred times turns to truth'.

"You really believe in that? You believe that Amon will create equality in this world?" Vergil asked.

"He will, if he doesn't… If he can't… What am I supposed to believe in…? How am I supposed to believe that we can have better lives…? Without benders oppressing us, without everything being dictated by benders…" The Equalist muttered.

"So that's what you are going to do? Wait for others to fix things? Are you sure you'll be happy by building your life on the words and actions of another?"

"I joined the Equalists! Isn't that enough?"

"Joining bunch of hypocrites, yeah, that ought to fix everything."

"Hypocrites?! What makes us hypocrites?"

"Do I really need to spell it for you? You talk about benders oppressing non-benders yet you oppress the benders. You say non-benders don't have the rights, yet your leader is taking away something that one was born with, the bending. As we live we gain and lose, but one thing that should remain with us to the very end is our blood, the characteristics of our being that makes us unique individuals. That is something that no one has a right to trample with yet Amon shamelessly does that and makes excuses based on his dream of equality." He didn't raise his voice, not even for a moment, he didn't need to do so.

"And how do they use it?! They oppress us, they make us pay so we can keep making livings for our families, if we don't they ruin us. And it's not just thugs, it's the very system, everything is controlled by benders, a non-bender can't get a proper job anymore!"

"I am a non-bender and I'm trying brat. I'm trying all I can to see just how oppressed non-benders are, believe me, I am trying to do that, but I can't. In three years I've been here I can count the number of times a non-bender called for help on one hand. Why is it that you don't act unless you are behind those masks?"

"We are afraid. Why can't you understand that we are powerless against benders?"

"I don't see anything powerless in what your comrades have done tonight, look around you, both benders and non-benders are panicking, you are all fighting for your selfish cowardly reasons, for the illusion of equality that allows you to cover your faces and indulge in violence against what you supposedly fear. You aren't fighting for the sake of equality here, you are just spreading panic and fear, you are satisfying your sick needs for making others suffer the same way you did."

His words struck as quick as a thunder as the Equalist looked around, it was true, the people were panicking, officers were already down, injured, electrified, Amon was taking away the bending of the Wolfbats.

"So tell me, is this the world you want?"

"Shut up!"

"Well if keeping your eyes closed will make doing this easier for you then go ahead and keep them closed. But let me warn you, with that resolve you can't stop me from interfering."

With the conversation clearly over the white haired male jumped down.

" _I am aware of it, I'm aware of the way non-benders have to live, there is nothing wrong with them wanting a better life. The reason behind all of this is rightful, however this isn't the way. This is just spreading violence and war. This will result in nothing but spilled blood and dirtied hands, as if we don't already have enough of that._ " Vergil's eyes narrowed and he pressed the blades against the arena's wall, the friction slowed down his fall and he saw that he was already too late.

Lieutenant was dragging Korra to one of the pillars where he would probably tie her along with her teammates.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. **Darkness Slide** …" He muttered the final two words under his breath and pushed himself off the wall. Now normally when doing this one would quickly descend into the water, Vergil however slid through the air and landed on the edge of the platform.

The sound of landing, no matter how soft, was still heard by Lieutenant who had just dragged Korra to the pillar.

"You. How did you get here?" Lieutenant asked.

"No idea. I just woke up and found myself here." Well he was kinda telling the truth. That's pretty much what happened three years ago. Although he knew how he got here. "Now step away from them and don't do anything rash." Vergil said in a tone that gave away the slight chill of threat.

"Amon will be quite pleased when I capture you, he wants to know a bit more about you." Lieutenant said as he pulled out his kali sticks and Vergil saw the electricity surging through them.

"Electricity eh? Let's see what you've got. Let me give you a fair warning, unlike metal wood isn't that much of an electricity conductor." White haired male as standing completely still and surprisingly open, his blades were drawn but the tips were lazily resting on the platform. Unlike Lieutenant who was fully on guard, after all Amon himself had stated that Vergil was a capable fighter shortly after the small brawl on the Memorial Island. And those eyes, Lieutenant had no way of being certain but when he looked at those cold, merciless pure yellow eyes and black slit pupils he felt like he was looking at the eyes of the death itself. Everything, every single thing about the white haired male was clearly indicating that he was barely paying attention, his body language, posture, the lack of guard, everything but those damn eyes that looked completely focused. This man was dangerous, there was no doubt about that…

Lieutenant found out that Vergil wasn't going to waste time as the said cop took the first step toward him. Lieutenant decided for a quick combo, electrify and then kick into the water, then electrify him again while in the water, that ought to do it. Right?

When he approached Lieutenant to about ten feet long distance Vergil dashed forward and swung his blade in an arc from left to right. Lieutenant barely stepped back and Vergil went to stab him with the blade held in his left hand. Being as quick as he was Lieutenant blocked the wooden tip with his kali sticks. Unfortunately wood didn't go well with serving the electricity to his attacker. Vergil gave him a small smirk and pushed forward.

Leonidas couldn't see it but Lieutenant's eyes widened when he heard a small crack, how in the world would mere wood crack his kali sticks. He ducked down and swung his left leg out to try and sweep Vergil off his feet.

Instead of backing away or jumping Vergil went and used the slight opening in Lieutenant's defense, he placed a kick against Lieutenant's now crossed forearms thus stopping the advance of Lieutenant's kick.

"You are finished." Lieutenant breathed through his teeth as he turned his sticks in his hands and stabbed Vergil's leg with them. Electricity charged through Vergil's body and Lieutenant smirked. The smirk faded as quickly as it appeared as Vergil pushed his leg forward and kicked Amon's right hand man all the way to one of the pillars.

Lieutenant coughed a bit as he tried to catch his breath, his kali sticks were out of his reach and Vergil seemed ready to attack again.

"Pick up your kali sticks." Those five words utterly shocked Lieutenant.

Korra, Mako and Bolin finally woke up.

Korra kinda groggily looked at Vergil and her eyes snapped open, she had never seen Lieutenant down like he was now and Vergil seemed anything but tired, in fact he was in the process of strapping his wooden swords back to his hip.

"No way…" Korra muttered.

"Is that...?" Bolin asked.

"Yes." Mako being familiar with the prospect of lightning seemed to take the shock better than the other two. "That's Vergil Leonidas. He's got quite a reputation as one of the best officers, only second to Chief herself."

"Don't tell me I kicked you too hard. Go and pick up your kali sticks." Vergil repeated, needless to say the request caught Fire Ferrets by surprise.

"Why?" Lieutenant asked.

"Why? Is that what you should be concerning yourself with?" Vergil pointed out and Lieutenant stood up.

"You are mocking me…" Lieutenant gritted his teeth and rushed at Vergil pretty much blindly.

"Tch, I guess I kicked you way too hard." Vergil grumbled and just as Lieutenant reached him he shot his fist forward and collided it with Lieutenant's guts. Man doubled over and fell to the ground. "You are a thousand years too early to rush blindly at me."

Lieutenant was gasping for air as the white haired male walked up to his kali sticks. Vergil picked the weapons up and threw them to Lieutenant. "You have three choices. Number one, try to run away. Number two, pick up the kali sticks and fight. Number three, surrender."

Amon's second in command waged his options; number three was out of question. That left one and two, normally he'd go with number two but at his current state he felt like it would be useless effort… He made his decision.

Lieutenant attempted escaping and Vergil didn't feel like letting him go just like that. He tried to run after his enemy but a sharp pain spread through his chest area and he was forced to halt. " _Damn it… Not now!_ "

The few seconds of pain allowed Lieutenant to escape back to the safety of his leader.

"Wow." Korra was impressed, very impressed, she didn't see most of the fight but it was clear who had the upper hand.

"Yeah, wow." Bolin agreed completely.

"Vergil!" Korra called him and the white haired male turned around.

"I see you've all woken up." He walked up to them.

"What did we miss?" Bolin asked.

"Equalists are having an upper hand, most of the cops are down for the count and it seems like Amon is going to give us a speech. Terrific." He was obviously being sarcastic with that last part.

"What about Asami? Is she alright?" Mako looked worried as he questioned Vergil about the current state of his girlfriend.

"I don't know and I don't care either. I don't think she's in danger though. It seems like this is quite a selective attack." Vergil said and though Mako glared at him, the **Firebender** felt somewhat of a relief.

"I'm going to stop Amon." Korra decided as she tried to jump into the water. Unfortunately she found herself unable to do so as Vergil held onto her forearm.

"Don't rush in like that. Follow me; I have a bit of a plan. This speech should last for at least a few minutes." Vergil told her.

"What plan?" Korra questioned and he released his grip on her arm.

"There is an emergency stairway that leads to the roof. I think Amon will try to use it to escape. If we go there and cut him off we'll avoid potential casualties outside of the fight and we'll have more space, the chances are that taking Wolfbats' bending isn't the only thing Amon wants to accomplish."

"So Korra, are you sure you can keep up with me on this one?" Vergil smirked and the determination behind the Avatar's cyan colored eyes told him everything.

"You can bet on it." Korra stated.

"What about me and Mako?" Bolin asked.

"No idea. Do whatever you feel like doing. Help out with evacuation, find Asami or whatever." Vergil dismissed it.

"Why not come with us?" Korra figured more people would be a good idea.

"Seriously? An **Earthbender** on a glass roof? Unless he rolls a gigantic pile of rocks along he'll be left to only his non-bending abilities, in this scenario he is outclassed. And Mako is more concentrated on finding Asami at the moment." Well he was kinda right about Bolin…

"Fine… Let's go already!" Korra urged him and pulled him into the water. Not wanting to waste and time she shoot them through the water all the way to one of the exits.

They got out of the water and Korra followed Vergil as they sprinted through the corridors all the way to the stairs.

"By the way when you were fighting you told Lieutenant to pick up his weapon. Why?" Korra asked.

"Just a sort of a principle. He is most competent and capable of fighting when he is using the kali sticks. In fact his fighting style revolves around them so he can't really utilize his best without them and I don't like fighting people that can't go all out." Vergil explained.

"With everything at stake one would think that you'd try to grasp at every advantage you can get." Korra pointed out.

"Perhaps. I will not argue with that approach, it's much smarter actually." They were reaching the exit and the roof just in time to see the airship flying toward the center of the arena. "Looks like we made it in time."

Vergil sped forward and the explosion went off inside of the arena. Korra took a moment to stabilize her footing and kept going after the Police officer.

Amon, along with Lieutenant who was gripping at his abdomen and about half a dozen of Equalists were being raised to the ship by small platforms.

With a battle cry Korra fired a large fireball at them.

The fire blazed and the six of the eight were now on the roof as well, amongst them was Amon. The remaining two were pulled out of balance as two metal cables attached to the platforms and as they fell to the glass Lin landed next to Vergil.

"Three against eight? Poor bastards got us outnumbered." Vergil smirked and he looked Amon directly in the eyes, they were going to have a bit of a rematch.

* * *

 _ **And that's it. Not much progress but I promise to deliver a fight scene far better than anything I wrote so far in this story in the next chapter and much longer than the canon one as well.**_

* * *

 _ **Answers on reviews:**_

 _ **Naroku – Thanks, tell me about it, his personality is almost signing him up for rough starts with people.**_

 _ **bambino01 – Thank you.**_

 _ **Freddie4153 – Sorry for being so late.**_

* * *

 _ **Next Chapter – Battle On The Roof**_


	7. Battle On The Roof

_**Chapter 7 – Battle On The Roof**_

* * *

Amon, along with Lieutenant who was gripping at his abdomen and about half a dozen of Equalists were being raised to the ship by small platforms.

With a battle cry Korra fired a large fireball at them.

The fire blazed and the six of the eight were now on the roof as well, amongst them was Amon. The remaining two were pulled out of balance as two metal cables attached to the platforms and as they fell to the glass Lin landed next to Vergil.

Vergil smirked at her arrival and then looked Amon directly in the eyes, they were going to have a bit of a rematch.

"I'm taking Amon." Korra called the dibs on that fight.

"You seem confident Avatar. Do I need to remind you of our last encounter?" Amon calmly added salt to the wounded pride of the Avatar.

"Enough talk!" And she punched a burst of flames toward Amon thus signaling the beginning of the battle.

The flames died out and the fights were already set in motion, Korra was facing Amon, Vergil had four Equalists on his side while Lin had the remaining two and Lieutenant.

Vergil for once decided to take it easy, Lin could handle her fight just fine and he wanted to let Korra fight Amon for a bit.

He ducked under a rope that was thrown at him and evaded a poor attempt to knock him out. Who was he kidding, there was no way he could just hold back against these guys…

"You have five seconds to leave or I'm taking you out." He warned.

"Five." Vergil stepped to the side.

"Four." An Equalist tried to electrify him.

"Three." Why let them land a hit when simply jump can solve everything.

"Two." He landed behind them.

"One." They turned around to attack again.

"Zero. Some people just don't listen."

Before they could even try to act, Vergil punched first one in the guts and kicked another one right across the face. The third one was swept of his feet and Vergil simply helped him fall by adding a bit of a pressure via a forearm across the chest.

Lin made a quick work out of two Equalists on her side, two metal cables wrapping around them and then making them collide and they are done for, the one that spells trouble is the one capable of electrifying her.

If lack of earth made Bolin incapable of fighting this battle then that rule applied to Lin as well, unfortunately, her entire arsenal was locked, her metal was a very good conductor of the electricity and because everything she wore was more or less made out of metal she couldn't get to a close combat range either…

Lieutenant knew this and he charged in with electricity charged kali sticks. Lin stepped out of the way and quickly slammed her foot down on the metal construction, the glass shattered as the metal pieces hovered in the air.

Lin sent two pieces of metal flying toward Lieutenant but even though he took a beating before he still manages to dodge in the nick of the time.

Korra was doing fine. She tried to kick Amon with fire enhanced roundhouse kick but the masked man swiftly stepped back and then as she was lowering her leg he approached her from the side with clear intention of getting a hold of her neck. Korra however risked losing her balance and she kicked toward Amon with her other leg. Amon blocked the airborne Avatar's foot with his right forearm and she used the momentum to jump back and put a small distance between them.

Amon wasted no time and quickly closed it as Korra took a boxing kind of stance and sent a couple of jabs toward Amon, each one sent a powerful ball of flames toward the Equalist. When Amon ducked under the fireballs and completely closed the distance Korra resorted to an uppercut. The flames licked at Amon's mask but his attack was a feint and in a matter of seconds he caught Korra and forced her to her knees.

Lin's eyes widened and she tried to shoot her cable at Amon but Lieutenant got in her way and electrocuted the cables and by extent Lin as well. Chief of Police dropped to the glass unable to act and stop Amon. Stopping Amon, protecting Korra, it all rested on Vergil's shoulders now.

Amon decided to do it, Avatar had experienced fear thanks to him, now he planned on making that fear carve its way into Korra's very heart. She would crumble under him, no one would be capable of providing her with security she would need to feel to keep going after he was done with her tonight.

Korra let out a scream as he made the motion he used to take bending away. She failed, he would take everything from her.

"Not a chance." Vergil muttered to himself and then did something that neither Amon nor Korra expected. Lin allowed herself a small smirk, when faced with no other option the white haired cop was willing to resort to that as well.

Wooden blade shot toward Amon. Korra watched as the blade approached, her mind went blank, the time seemed to slow down as her eyes locked with the eyes of the white haired male. He had thrown his own weapon…

Amon's eyes widened and he did his best to evade it but a blade moving at that speed could not be dodged by humans, not completely. The Equalist leader felt the wooden blade leaving a gash on his right side and then flying off into the darkness of the night. He placed his hand on the wound, it wasn't too deep but it was still going to be an annoyance in the battle.

Korra was on her knees, gasping for air, he almost did it, he almost took her bending. She barely registered the white haired male darting by her and pushing Amon further away with a quite powerful kick.

"Don't go around playing mind games with her! Amon!" Vergil fiercely exclaimed and Korra looked at his back. He looked like nothing could stop him, she was the Avatar, she was used to seeing people being defeated by her back in the White Lotus compound, there was no one in her life that had never failed to accomplish their goals. However, this man, though non-bender, looked like he was capable of taking anyone and anything down.

The rage on the male's face was evident as Amon stood up, he knew what the point of Amon's act was, to shatter Korra's resolve, to break her and Vergil had quite a lot against that kind of approach.

Amon looked behind Vergil and Korra and saw that while he was dodging the wooden blade Vergil ended up defeating and knocking out the last of his four opponents. The only ones left were him and Lieutenant.

Vergil darted forward once again and attempted to knock Amon back with a well-placed punch. For once Amon took it but also jumped backwards to lower the impact of Vergil's punch. The Equalist leader reached out and caught Vergil's forearm, the police officer was sent into the skies where he spun around in mid-air and kicked Amon on the left side of the abdomen, he could have targeted the right side, it would add more pain but where was the fun in that?

Amon let out a barely audible grunt as he skidded to the right. Vergil smirked and as soon as his foot touched the glass, he pulled out his wooden blade and made a horizontal slash toward Amon's neck.

Amon proved to possess quite amazing speed, reflexes and overall battle capabilities as he jumped over the blade and stepped on it thus using his weight to push Vergil's left arm down. As Vergil leaned slightly forward Amon's hand went right for his neck.

The smirk never left Vergil's face as he allowed the gravity to pull him to the glass and ducked under the hand that was about to get a hold of him. The white haired male allowed Amon to land on the glass without any interference and then blocked a backhanded swipe that Amon attempted.

They stood like that for a few moments almost as if they were debating on what to do next. Finally, Vergil pushed Amon's arm away and as the masked man turned around he threw a punch. It collided with Amon's forearm but the strike was weak and Amon realized that it was a feint. Golden eyes flashed in the night as Vergil went for an uppercut with the blade still in his hand, Amon easily caught his fist and stopped both the punch and potential cut, and then the feint was over.

Vergil pulled back his right fist just about an inch back then slammed it back against Amon's forearm. It crashed through the defense and the force of impact fell upon Amon's chest. He was pushed back a couple of meters but still remained on his feet; this was something that Vergil simply had to respect.

" _You really are good_." Vergil was quite happy, his fights over the last three years were rarely challenging, and here he was, fighting a very good battle against a human. He knew that Amon wasn't a kind of opponent that he could take it easy with yet this was something he had no control over. It happened in the worst possible moment, the pain in his chest that momentarily stopped the white haired male's movement was enough for the blade to get knocked out of his hand.

The blade was lost, there was nothing he could do at the moment so he did his best to counter as soon as the pain disappeared, he slammed his fist against Amon's incoming one. The force behind the two hits was enough to make both Vergil and Amon step back for a moment; however Vergil was placed at a disadvantage. A surge of pain overcame him as he felt like someone was pounding on his head. To make matters worse Lieutenant was ready to electrocute him from behind.

Lin knew it would be useless, but the thought of Vergil being electrocuted was not something she wanted to see. She knew electricity for some reason failed to work on the white haired male yet she made the metal cable latch onto the kali stick and pull it out of Lieutenant's hand. The electricity charged through her body and with a cry, she fell down.

The moment he heard Lin's cry Vergil snapped his attention to her and paid the price. Lieutenant slammed his remaining kali stick over the back of the white haired male's head and he stumbled forward right where Amon was waiting to punch him in the guts and pull his arms back in order to break them.

Vergil greeted his teeth, pulled his arms free from Amon's grip, and leapt forward. He needed to end things quickly, the buzzing was getting louder and it was getting in the way of his hearing, sure, he could still hear but his sense was no longer as sensitive as it usually was.

Korra regained her composure and rushed into the battle. She **Firebent** a horizontal wave of flames at Lieutenant and he jumped over it and went to stab Korra with an electrified kali stick. She pushed it away quickly and elbowed the man right in the face. Lieutenant stumbled backwards and Korra could once again turn her attention to Amon who was in a bit of a sparring session with Vergil that consisted of a couple of punches and parries on both sides.

Barely knowing one another didn't help the teamwork of the Avatar and the police officer as Vergil had to forcefully stop a roundhouse kick due to a burst of flames shot at Amon. Of course, Amon dodged the burst of flame and as soon as it was out of his way, he lunged forward and threw Vergil, who was out of balance at the moment, right at Korra.

Korra jumped out of the way and Vergil skidded over the glass and stopped a couple of feet away from one of the knocked out Equalists and right next to his previously lost wooden blade. The Avatar sent a barrage of fireballs at the Equalist leader, but Amon swayed between the fireballs and slowly closed the distance between him and electrified Chief of Police that was slowly getting up.

"Shit…" Vergil cursed as soon as he noticed Amon's target. "Lin! Watch out!" He yelled but being electrified a total of three times took its toll on Lin. The white haired male reached out for his remaining blade in order to try and throw it at Amon.

"It's over for you." Lieutenant kicked the wooden blade away, the fireball was one second too late and the kali stick wielder ducked under it.

What happened next was a blur of movement and two of the five currently conscious fighters found themselves in the grasps of their enemies.

Lin was in Amon's grasp and the Equalist leader was about to take her bending away.

"Let's make a deal, Amon."

Everything stopped with those words, Korra's barrage, Amon's hand, everything just stopped. While Amon took a hold of Lin and prepared to take her bending away Vergil took the chance Korra's **Firebending** gave him. He pushed himself to his feet and trapped Lieutenant in his hold.

Lieutenant struggled to breath as Vergil gripped onto his neck, in fact Amon's second in command was paralyzed and on his knees and he had no idea why, all he felt was something similar to the strike from his own kali sticks.

Vergil let out a few uneven breaths as the headache and the buzzing in his ears got stronger, the sharp bursts of pain through his chest were far more frequent and even stronger now that he put the strain on his body, his own heart was working against him… Maybe it was the combination of this condition and Korra's attention being fully on Amon that stopped them from noticing one key factor…

"And that deal is?" Amon seemed fairly interested in what Vergil would offer.

"You'll let Lin-" White haired male gasped as he felt sharp pain in his lower left side of the abdomen, the heat that could only be caused by blood was slowly warming up his skin

Lin and Korra's eyes widened as blood stained the jacket Vergil had on and the tip of a long hunting knife ruptured through the material.

Vergil felt blood trailing down his chin and he greeted his teeth as he refused to let go of Lieutenant's neck. He still turned his head back a bit and saw the Equalist standing behind him, holding the knife. "Damn… I was careless…" White haired male cursed.

"Let go of Lieutenant." He recognized the voice, it was the same Equalist he talked to before.

"Vergil!" Lin cried out his name. "That's enough, let him go!"

"It seems the deal is off, Leonidas." Amon said and began bringing his hand closer to Lin.

What he heard next was a strangled cry from his second in command.

"Don't underestimate me." Vergil hissed, it was clear that he had broken a couple of ribs by planting his knee onto Lieutenant's back.

He still paid the price as the knife in his body twisted and made the wound worse.

"There's nothing you can do. Give up." Equalist tried to persuade him.

"What did I just say?" Vergil asked and the next thing the Equalist saw was the elbow heading right toward his face.

With the young Equalist knocked out Vergil turned his attention back to Amon. "The deal still stands, let Lin go, without taking her bending. Once you do, Korra will go and get her to me. You are not to move or else I will kill your second in command. As you can see, I am still fully capable of doing so. As soon as Lin and Korra are behind me, I will let go of Lieutenant and you can take him and all your Equalist and get the hell out of here. Neither I nor anyone else will interfere with that." Vergil stated, Amon took a couple of seconds, perhaps to think things through.

"It's true that this opportunity would strip the city of one of the most powerful benders it has, however this isn't the only opportunity I'll get. I accept the deal." Amon declared and pushed Lin forward, the electrocuted and weakened Metalbender stumbled forward but remained on her feet. Her eyes met with Vergil's for a brief moment before Korra got to her.

"Let me help." Korra offered but Lin shook her head.

"I'm fine kid." The Chief of Police would not take help, this situation was as bad as it can get without taking help from the Avatar.

Two females got behind Vergil as he had requested in his deal. "Vergil…" Korra tried to say something.

"As I promised, you can all leave." Vergil let go of Lieutenant and stepped back.

Amon nodded and a form of respect was created between the two enemies, they remained true to their promise as the Equalists landed on the roof and picked up their fallen comrades, finally, Amon himself stepped on the small platform and was pulled back to the airship.

Vergil took a deep breath and yanked the hunting knife out of his body much to Korra's surprise, the blood spilled and stained the glass but he ignored it, he had worse than this. "Are both of you alright?" He asked.

"Forget about that we have to treat that wound." Korra said and pulled him fully intending to get him down the stairs and get some water.

"Fine, fine." The white haired male surrendered and allowed her to pull him, his mind wandered off to the glance Lin sent him, he was in for a hell of a lot of her ranting… Awesome… On top of that, it seemed like Korra planned on taking his recovery into her hands… Double the awesome…

Lin had similar thoughts and she would have jumped right into the act had it not been for the wound, she picked up the hunting knife and followed the Avatar that was pretty much dragging her officer down the stairs. The sight of determined Korra and annoyed Vergil seemed to fit perfectly into the situation.

They went down the stairs in silence and Korra kept pulling Vergil.

"Korra!" Bolin's voice shattered the silence and they soon saw the two brothers and Tenzin running toward them.

Mako however halted and stared for a moment.

Vergil glanced at his hand, the one that Korra was still pulling at and realized why Mako was staring, it certainly wasn't what it looked like but there wasn't really a way to explain that. In the end, he just pulled his hand away from Korra's and before she could even think of questioning his action, Bolin wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug.

The Earthbender didn't stop there and he actually pulled Mako into a now group hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay." Mako told her.

"Me too!" Bolin added.

"Looks like we lost this one." Lin commented.

"Not really, they may have escaped but the play ground is a bit more even, neither you nor Korra lost the ability to bend, furthermore both Amon and Lieutenant are injured at the moment." Vergil countered.

"And so are you. We have to get that wound treated, come on Vergil." Tenzin urged the white haired male as soon as he noticed the blood that was tainting Vergil's clothes.

"I'll be fine." He argued and Korra turned her attention away from Mako and Bolin.

"Tenzin's right, come on, I can heal you." She was about to pull him along again.

"Thanks for the offer but I don't really fancy the kind of healing you can give me. I prefer a more traditional way." Vergil grinned at her. "Anyway, we've got a lot of work to do so you should get some rest. I'll probably pay a visit to the Air Temple Island in a couple of days so we can talk about tonight's events." He then turned to Tenzin. "Of course if that's fine with you."

"You don't need to ask for permission to come to the island Vergil. You are more than welcome." Tenzin assured him.

"I appreciate that." Vergil nodded his thanks and Tenzin sighed.

"Make sure you don't overdo it, both of you, the Republic City is at war now. We need both of you, and you Korra at your best." Tenzin told them.

The white haired male agreed as he ignored the fatigue caused pain…

* * *

 _ **And that's it. I hope that the fight scene was good enough to make up for the slow updates lately. Anyway, as you can see the health issues aren't really working in Vergil's favor. There is something that Vergil did in the previous chapter that's causing quicker exhaustion and thus health issues so this kind of situation won't be constant in battles.**_

* * *

 _ **Answers on reviews:**_

 _ **Naroku – Thanks for the review**_

 _ **Guest – Thank you.**_

 _ **kidkutt17 – Thank you for the review, I'm glad you like it. Lin is one of my favorites and I feel like there are sides of her that should have been explored through some way. So I want to provide Lin with a person that can by age factor be considered her child and yet a person that can provide the kind of relationship I feel she needs throughout the entire series so yeah, that's how Vergil ended up in the position he is in.**_

* * *

 _ **Next Chapter –**_ _ **Collapse Of The Future**_


	8. Collapse Of The Future Part 1

_**Chapter 8 – Collapse Of The Future Part 1**_

* * *

The night in which the Equalist attack on the Pro-bending arena happened would stay etched into Vergil's brain, but not because of the battle, but because of Lin…

It was nothing but mere luck that saved her bending… Once the luck played its part, he could take everything into his own hands and complete the job. And he did…

Vergil was not the kind of person used to resorting to luck; he found it to be a game of chance and his childhood taught him that games of chances were never good for those he held dear. So, as much as Lin was frustrated over his actions her frustration hardly matched his, for there was no one as frustrated over what happened tonight as Vergil.

Lin walked in on him pressing the electrified piece of metal to his wound; he was using electro cauterization, again. Normally the white haired male simply bandaged the wounds if he got any but in cases of these kinds of wounds, he went and burnt them to stop the bleeding.

"I still can't get used to you doing that." Lin made her presence known.

"It's not like you need to." Vergil pointed out and the Chief took a first aid kit and walked up to him.

"You'll have to disinfect it." She stated firmly.

"And you need to get some rest; you've been electrocuted a few times in a short time span." He reminded her.

They sat in silence as Vergil worked on treating his wound, perhaps he was simply stalling some time before the scolding Lin had in mind.

* * *

Korra was sitting in the dining room with Tenzin and Pema, the older female had just put her son, Meelo, to bed and returned to make some tea.

Korra was surprisingly silent and Tenzin knew what was the cause of this, the battle that ended a bit more than an hour ago. She thought back to it, to Amon overpowering her, then to Vergil matching up and having an upper hand against Amon and finally the white haired male making a deal with the Equalist leader. Vergil mentioned fighting at a disadvantage and he clearly proved to be capable of holding his ground even with a knife impaling his abdomen, furthermore he did offer to teach her…

"Korra." Tenzin finally broke the silence making the young Avatar jump out of her skin. "You did well tonight."

His words were unexpected. She didn't do well at all; at least that was her opinion.

"Well? I let Amon beat me and almost lost my bending again!" She exclaimed, she wasn't angry at Tenzin, she was angry at herself.

"You faced Amon without fear blocking you. That is something worth praise. I am sure that both Lin and Vergil can testify to that seeing as they saw everything first handed." Tenzin stated.

"From them? Doubt that." Alright there may have been a bit of bitterness in those words, even with the fact that she kept her bending because of Vergil she was still frustrated at herself for letting Amon get her like that.

Suddenly a thought popped out in Korra's head. "What is going to happen to the arena now?"

"It'll be closed down for the time being." Tenzin answered making the Avatar's eyes widen a bit.

"They can't close it down! There are people living there!" She tried to argue.

"It's damaged and potentially dangerous. Closing it is our best option." The Airbending Master calmly stated.

"Then… Can Mako and Bolin come to live here for the time being? They won't have anywhere to go and will have to go back to the streets. And the island is big enough! Please tell me you can find place for two more people." Korra pleaded.

Not that she needed. Tenzin was more than willing to help out and Korra did bring up good points. "Of course. You can bring them here; they'll be welcomed with open hands."

The large grin appeared on Korra's face at that.

* * *

At the same time, Vergil felt like he wanted to knock himself out. Furthermore he looked downright annoyed.

Why?

Because now that he had finished patching himself up he had to deal with Lin.

Scolding the living hell out of him.

While he was too exhausted to counter.

This was a blast, really. A true barrel full of monkeys, or hog monkeys, or tiger monkeys, or whatever chimerical monkey-like specie these humans had.

"You wasted one chance we had to capture Amon or at the very least Lieutenant. And don't let me start on how far you went tonight." Lin's voice was eerie calm and Vergil didn't like that so he chose the less tiring option, he remained quiet.

The Chief of Police marched out of the room and quickly returned with a bloodied cloth, one that she slammed right in front of Vergil. Usually the handkerchief that Lin had in her car just in case this happened was white with green outline but now it was colored with crimson liquid.

"This much. You've never coughed up this much blood."

Vergil wasn't going to argue with that. In the previous three years he did have times in which he coughed up small quantities of blood but a bit over a deciliter, which he coughed up tonight, never happened.

"I know." Was all he had to say as he looked at the bloodied handkerchief. He frowned as he felt a small trail of blood coming down from the corner of his mouth.

"You need to see Katara." Lin wiped the blood away with a napkin.

"She can't help me, no one can." He was damn stubborn, but the small trail of blood that continued slowly coloring the napkin stopped Lin's scolding. "I'm off to bed, sweet dreams." Vergil abruptly stood up and went to his room.

* * *

The morning came way too quickly but Vergil knew he had to get up. He had a lot of things to do and think through. For example just how the events of the previous night and injuries would affect Amon's plans. Would they postpone it for the time being? Every assumption made from here on out would lean on the number of people in Amon's inner circle and the man's willingness to, if needed, pull someone new into it.

Naturally, for him to get even the slightest progress with this he would have to open his eyes, ignore the damn fatigue and the slight pain in his chest and get the hell up.

Vergil sat up rolled his neck and shoulders a couple of times and jumped to his feet. Discipline, it was his little pet theory that the simple discipline was one of the most valuable allies.

His downfall however, would rest in the fact that the radio was turned on…

' _Although the Hundred Year War has long passed we are not living in a time of peace._ '

Yeah, forget getting up right now. Tarrlok's voice just killed every last fiber of will and discipline Vergil possessed to get up.

' _These revolutionaries who call themselves Equalists are not interested in Equality at all. They just want to wage war against benders. Chief Beifong was supposed to protect Republic City but she was powerless to stop Amon's attack on the arena. She has failed us all. If we are to survive these dire times our law enforcement needs new leadership.'_

Lin failed them? That bastard sure had a nerve to indirectly say that he had someone more competent than Lin in mind. If he was so damn good at what he was doing how come all he managed to deal with were small fries?

With that frustration fueling Vergil's motivation the white haired male jumped to his feet.

It was time to go to work, or so he planned to do.

The moment he stepped out of his room he was met with a change of plans.

"We've got and Intel saying that Cabbage Corp is involved with the Equalists." Lin was already in her uniform.

"So who's leading the operation?" Vergil asked.

"You were already investigating the Equalists. You take the lead for now." Normally she would do it but it would be a bit unfair to make him take the backseat.

A few moments later he had a plan formulated. "Get me a handful of officers dressed as civilians to watch over the supposed warehouse but not to act, unless someone tries to take out the supposed Equalist equipment. Let's have Saikhan make sure everything is right on that side. You and I will go directly to Lau." And it sounded like a plan.

* * *

Korra was in a very good mood as Naga got her to the arena, the place was already being closed down so she was glad she decided to make this trip this early in the morning. She pretty much ran to the apartment the bending brothers had.

"I still can't believe they are shutting this place down." She could hear Mako commenting as she climbed up.

"Yeah, we made some good memories here, didn't we?" Bolin already sounded nostalgic.

"Guys! Great news, you don't have to go back to the streets." Korra skipped the greeting and jumped right into telling them the news. "I talked to Tenzin and made all the arrangements. You can come live on Air Temple Island with me."

Mako looked kinda uncomfortable. "Oh." He placed a hand on the back of his head as he avoided looking at Korra. "We'd love to but…" He didn't really know how to tell her the situation.

On the other hand Bolin didn't have the troubles when it came to breaking down the news to Korra and looking happy about it as well.

"Asami already invited us to live in her dad's giant mansion!"

The happiness was immediately replaced with sadness at the news.

"From here on out, it's going to be the lap of luxury for us." And Bolin had to add just that as he brought Mako closer to him in an one armed hugged, one that the older bender didn't exactly look comfortable with.

"Hey Korra." And the devil just had to make her presence known to the young Avatar. The only saving grace was the fact that Korra's face, which clearly showcased the utter displeasure and annoyance at even hearing the rich beauty speaking, was the fact that it could not be seen by the said female.

"I was hoping you'd stop by." Asami let go of Pabu and began climbing down.

"I was just leaving." And someone was obviously cranky… "So… I guess I'll see you guys around. Sometime." And she didn't look happy either, she felt like her first friends were being ripped away from her by Asami, as if Mako being with Asami wasn't already enough.

"Why not tomorrow? I'd love to have you come visit the estate." Asami suggested. From the very beginning she was trying to establish some sort of communication with Korra but it was something that the Avatar rejected again and again.

"I don't know. I have some Avatar stuff to do." And it was a lame excuse, luckily Asami either bought it or simply chose not to hold grudge over the blatant rejection of her invitation.

Bolin had an idea though and he lifted Pabu up. "Come on Korra." He made his voice kinda softer as Pabu made gestures with his small paws. "We all deserve a little rest and relaxation after all this craziness. We can swim in Asami's pool, it'll be fun."

Not even the mighty Avatar could say no to the sovereign creature of the world, Master Pabu.

"Hahah. Alright Pabu." Korra gave in.

"Great. We'll see you tomorrow." Asami said as Korra left.

* * *

Lau Gan-Lan was a man on Vergil's suspect list; besides Hiroshi Sato he was one of the rare people in Republic City with enough wealth and technology to support Amon. This man was currently at his office and his morning routine was interrupted by a knock on his doors.

"Come in." He said when he realized that the one behind the doors was waiting for his permission to come in.

Lin Beifong followed by Vergil walked in.

"Good morning, Lau." Vergil greeted him.

Lau stood up to greet them. "Chief Beifong. Mr. Leonidas. How can I help you?" He sounded eager to help them out.

"For now we have a few questions for you." Vergil began nice and easy.

"Please take a seat." Lau offered and the trio sat down.

"As you are aware, the Equalists are getting quite bold with their actions recently. We are interested in your opinion on the matter." Vergil stated.

"My opinion?" To say that Lau was surprised would be an understatement. "I must admit that this is surprising question. But I'll try to be as helpful as I can." Lau seemed to pick words. "Don't get me wrong but I don't exactly think that they are as much of a problem as Council for example thinks. Many of my workers are non-benders and I am well aware of their situation. So I believe the idea Eqalists have is righteous one and their intention seemed to be making a better life for non-benders."

"Seemed?" Vergil subtly requested for Lau to continue speaking.

"Yes. What happened last night showed that they are going too far. Many people were endangered and most of them were non-benders, the same people Equalists claim to want to help. I do not believe Amon is right in what he is doing but his reasons are valid."

Vergil nodded.

"We received an Intel saying that you are helping out the Equalists and that there is evidence in your warehouse." Lin joined in making Lau's eyes widen a bit.

"Please feel free to take a look for yourself. Neither I nor my workers have anything to do with Equalists." Lau offered.

"We'll take you up on that offer." Vergil stated and stood up.

* * *

And they were finally there, just a few more minutes and everything would be clear. Would the Intel be right? Or would Lau's confidence be justified?

"So, I take it we can proceed." Vergil stated as he went to open the first one in front of him.

"Of course, you'll see, there's nothing related to Equalists here." Lau sounded confident but when the crate was open the Equalist electric gloves were all he, Lin and Vergil could see.

"H-how…? This can't be…" Lau muttered as he took a step back.

Vergil absent mindedly revealed more and more evidence, the electric gloves, the posters everything associated with Equalists was here… Still the white haired male was only concentrated on the look of complete horror on Lau's face, something that wasn't there when Vergil first went to open one of the crates. It looked like a mere second was all the time he needed to become completely different person.

"Looks like our Intel was right." Lin commented as she looked at the overwhelming evidence.

"I… I don't understand… I'm innocent! My workers are innocent! We've got nothing to do with this!" Lau was panicking and for a good reason as well. With this much evidence they'd bury the Cabbage Corp. And so the tears threatened to fall down the older man's face.

"Can you wait in your office for now?" Vergil requested.

"You have to trust me! This is a mistake!" There was a little chance of reasoning with this man at this moment.

"I'll listen to you but for now go back to your office." This time the white haired male ordered.

"But…!"

"I get it. Now kindly leave us be so we can discuss the current situation in peace." Vergil cut him off, the morally defeated man could only listen to the order and hope for the best.

Vergil sat down on one of the crates as a few minutes of silence passed.

"Chief, there are news reporters waiting for you." Saikhan walked in.

"News reporters? How did they find out about this?" Lin asked.

"Someone must have informed them." That was the only explanation not only Saikhan but anyone else could come up with, either that or someone just stumbled up on three of the more capable officers being present in Cabbage Corp.

"Will you trust me on this one and give me a few more days before you give answers to reporters?" Vergil requested thus surprising Lin and Saikhan.

"What for? We've got enough evidence here to bury Cabbage Corp for eternity." Saikhan stated.

"Saikhan's right. I know you usually have good reasons but I don't see why we should wait." Lin added.

"And the integrity of Police is at stake as well, the more we wait the worse it will get." Saikhan finished.

"This is too easy." While Lin did find his words to be true Saikhan didn't.

"And that is bad how exactly?" The second in command didn't see why that was bad.

"For Amon to make a mistake like this, it just feels wrong. We went and gave Lau enough time to get all this out, if he did we would have caught him red handed with all the officers watching over the buildings and he looked way too surprised for it to be fake. There's too much quantity here as well…" He hunched forward and rested his forehead against his entwined fingers. "Give me three days to question all of Cabbage Corp's workers and associates, come up with some plan and I don't know, hope that something right will pop up. Also let me do the questioning of the ones involved with the last night's incident." He was taking a big bite and while Saikhan honestly believed that it was way too big for Vergil to even bite it off Lin and Vergil were uncertain if he could even try to chew it properly.

"You can't do all of that alone." Saikhan expressed his thoughts.

"I do things on my own. Just give me three days and I'll get it done. Seventy two hours from the moment we step out of this building you can go and do whatever you please." He wasn't giving up on it.

Lin sighed and made her decision. She would trust him. "Fine." Which still didn't mean she was happy about it and her tone proved it completely.

"Chief!" Saikhan exclaimed.

"I'll take the full responsibility."

"Thanks." Vergil offered her a small grin.

As Lin stepped out to face the mob of reporters Vergil blatantly ignored the glare Saikhan was sending him, he was focused on taking the next step.

"At the moment we wish to preserve our thoughts on the subject. As soon as we can make one hundred percent certain claims we will come out and make them public." That was all Vergil needed to hear and it looked like that was all Lin wanted to say as she walked back in despite the protests of the reporters.

"The seventy two hours… begin now." Vergil stood up and with determination clear in his eyes he made his way to Lau.

* * *

 _ **And that's it. I am aware that to us a few teaspoons of coughed up blood would be alarming, at least that's what internet taught me, and I did do a research on some health issues, via internet, beforehand so I'm, hopefully, not blindly writing those parts of the story.**_

* * *

 _ **Answers on reviews:**_

 _ **Naroku – Thanks for the review. Yes, I plan on filling the time gap between Air and Spirits with a few chapters, then a chapter between Spirits and Change and finally an original book between Change and Balance, I also plan on having at least one additional Book after Balance.**_

 _ **Lelouch-Strife – If you want the direct romance, kisses, relationship and such, it'll take a while, however some sort of moments so to speak will start of soon enough. Subtle few in the chapters covering episode seven, then a bit more obvious ones for episode 9 material and from then on we'll see where it goes.**_

 _ **Guest – Thank you, I'm glad to hear that.**_

 _ **ChunkyFunkyMunky – I've already sent you a PM but thanks anyway.**_

 _ **Kidkutt17 – Thank you for the review. That might be because I'm still a bit new to writing fight scenes in Avatar verse; I hope future fight scenes will be easier to follow.**_

 _ **Guest – Sorry for the wait.**_

* * *

 _ **Next Chapter – Collapse Of The Future Part 2**_


	9. Collapse Of The Future Part 2

_**Chapter 9 – Collapse Of The Future Part 2**_

* * *

"The seventy two hours… begin now." Vergil stood up and with determination clear in his eyes he made his way to Lau.

The man in question was a mess, he was trembling, crying and the moment Vergil entered the room he was in front of him, clutching at the officer's jacket as if his life depended on it.

"It's a mistake! Someone set me up I'm sure of it! You have to believe me I would never help Equalists!" The older man cried out.

"Quit the waterworks and more importantly quit clinging to me. I'm willing to look deeper into this and question your employees. For now you are innocent and we won't close the Cabbage Corp." Vergil said.

"T-Thank you! Thank you!" Lau nearly clung to him again.

"But let me warn you, if after everything is said and done you end up being guilty again, I'll personally make sure you receive the most severe penalty." He'd look into it, he'd spend time delaying Lau's arrest and closing of the Cabbage Corps for now despite what Lin and Saikhan believed, but if Lau actually lied to him like this then there would be a hell to pay, not for lying but for not taking the consequences of his actions.

The way Lau's face remained the same told him that he wasn't wrong. This man was innocent.

And so the day was coming to an end as midnight approached and Vergil wondered just how many employees had he questioned, in the end piles and piles of papers at his left side were their physical manifestation. Sighing, he picked up the most recent questioning file and began reading through it as he took three boxes and another stack of clean papers.

Reports were mostly the same, denials of any connection to the Equalists, claims that Lau was innocent, some random information about Amon that were either in the newspapers or heard via the radio broadcasts the man himself did. Overall, the box that got filled the most was the one meant for reports of hardly any use, or in most cases useless ones. Remaining two boxes, for somewhat useful and useful reports, were nearly empty… He went and wasted a day, but at the very least he was certain Cabbage Corp wasn't affiliated with Amon.

Early in the morning, after a sleepless night, Vergil had to go back to interrogating people. Surprisingly the first one to come in was none other than the daughter of one of his suspects.

"Good morning, you are Vergil, right?" Asami said as she walked thought the doors.

"Good morning to you as well, and you are?" He questioned.

"Asami Sato. I was at the arena during the finals." She answered.

"I see. Well did you see anything suspicious while Amon was attacking?" Vergil asked.

"Equalists didn't attack the VIP lodges." That was the first thing she noticed.

"So there was someone there they didn't want to attack. They were ready to attack the arena so not taking it all the way seems a bit unusual." Vergil thought it over, getting the list of those at the VIP lodges wouldn't be much of a problem so he could compare that list to his suspect list and see if any names match.

One name certainly would, Hiroshi, now that he thought about it if she was his daughter there was a high chance…

"Say, do you have any involvement with your father's work?" The question threw her off and immediately she thought that Vergil was suspecting her father.

"I do. I help him out and I've designed some of the more recent satomobiles." Asami chose her words.

To her surprise the white haired male pulled out an Equalist glove.

"What can you tell me about this? Do you think it could be made by Cabbage Corps?" Vergil asked as he pushed the Equalist glove to Asami.

She took it and inspected it for a few minutes. "I can't tell you much without further inspecting it but if Cabbage Corps made products of this quality all the time they'd give us a run for our money."

"It's incredibly compact, there aren't any massive energy sources and it's surprisingly light considering the fact that's it's made out of metal. I think its platinum since it is not possible to **Metalbend** metal as pure as that. And it's safe to use, no matter how much the one wearing it uses it they won't get electrocuted unless they do it on purpose." She concluded.

"I'm impressed." Vergil admitted, the high chances paid off, she really was good with technology. "Thank you for your help." He said and Asami offered him her hand.

"I trust you know who to call if any other equipment is discovered." A business woman, through and through.

"Certainly." They exchanged a handshake.

"It was nice meeting you, have a good day." Asami left the office.

A few hours of questioning later he was fighting against the fatigue and losing miserably, he knew he'd have to take a break soon. The knocking on his doors prevented him from just closing his eyes.

"Come in." The white haired male knew he could not allow himself to sound, let alone look, tired.

"Good morning Mr. Leonidas." Hiroshi Sato, of all people he had the chance to question it just had to be this man when he hits his weakest… Just his damn luck.

"Sato." Vergil greeted him and gestured toward the chair. "Make yourself comfortable."

"Of course. Thank you for your hard work, I'm certain Equalists will be stopped with you on our side." Hiroshi complimented him.

"I appreciate the trust you put in me, feel free to take a look at the information I've gathered." If Hiroshi was playing a game then so will Vergil. More so due to the fact that just glancing at the main board Hiroshi will notice his own name.

"I have to admit that I am quite interested in what you gathered." With that Hiroshi stood up and studied the collected information.

Vergil stood behind Hiroshi just as the man glanced at potential suspects

"As you can see Sato, I believe that you have the sources, abilities and reasons to help Amon. More so than Lau and let's face it, the quality of the technology used by Equalists is far ahead of what Cabbage Corps makes."

"Are you implying something here, Mr. Leonidas?"

"Perhaps. However, let us chat about this a bit later, when we both have appropriate amount of time for that. You are free to go."

"I must say I am saddened by your suspicions, nonetheless I'm quite pleased with everything that you are trying to cover in such a short period of time. Rest assured, Future Industries has nothing to do with those foul Equalists." Hiroshi assured him.

"I'll be the judge of that. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated."

They nodded a goodbye to one another and Hiroshi left.

Doors opened again just a minute later and Vergil noticed one of the pro-benders, Tahno.

"Tahno, right? You had your bending taken away from you at the arena." Vergil sort of greeted him.

The former pro-bender took the seat and contemplated on what would be the most useful piece of information, surely the officer in front of him knew the details of what happened already.

"Yes and I've been to the best healers in the city, whatever Amon did to me, it's permanent." Tahno stated and Vergil remained silent for a few moments.

"I take it it's kinda like a sickness, if you don't know what to cure you can't get rid of it… If there is a way to revert it the first step is figuring out what it is that Amon is doing." He said and then looked at Tahno. "I don't exactly believe in 'gift from Spirits' or however Amon called it crap. From your standpoint, would you dare say that Amon is a bender?" The white haired male inquired.

The former pro-bender looked utterly surprised by the question. "It doesn't make sense, why would a bender take other people's bending?"

"I'm simply having an open mind here. Times and times again I keep coming to a conclusion that he needs to have some connection to bending. Every other idea has at least some flaw." Vergil said. "So?"

"I doubt a non-bender could do that." Tahno said.

Vergil nodded and wrote down a few words. "If that's all, you're free to go."

' _It doesn't make sense, why would a bender take other people's bending?'_

' _Why would you of all people fight on the side of my enemy? You, the son of my right hand man?'_

He was lost in his thoughts; he failed to notice Tahno leaving the room and even Korra coming in.

"Vergil?" The Avatar's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

His eyes widened for a brief moment as he noticed Korra right in front of his table. "Sorry, I spaced out for a moment."

She noticed the piles of papers stocked on his desk and some of the files were on the floor, she suspected he spent hours interrogating people. "When did you find time to do all of this?" She asked incredulously.

"I guess I more or less wasted twenty four hours, give or take a few."

"And you found time to sleep when exactly?"

"I didn't." He offered her a small, frankly tired, grin when her eyes widened. "Let's get this done with quickly. I'll come by to the Air Temple Island most likely tomorrow, perhaps today if I can get things done and then we'll talk things through in more details."

Korra looked nervous for some reason.

"What's wrong?" The white haired cop asked.

"Couldyoutrainme?" She blurted it out.

"I'm too tired to decipher that." He blankly told her.

Taking a deep breath she composed herself and swallowed her pride once again, after all by requesting this she pretty much said she agreed to everything he told her when they first talked. "Could you train me?"

"Sure. If everything goes as planned I'd say we could have a bit of a spar tomorrow." Golden and cyan eyes met in the moment of silence. That went much better than Korra thought it would, he didn't mock her, or boast on how right he was, he just accepted it. "How are you feeling?"

The question caught her by surprise. "Uh, I'm feeling fine. I didn't get hurt and I had time to rest. What about you?"

"The usual. And mentally? Did you have any nightmares? Or anything else for that matter because of what Amon could have done?" He was clearly talking about Amon almost taking her bending.

"No, not really. I did think about it but I didn't have any nightmares." She stated, surprisingly she was quite comfortable talking to him about this.

"If you do start having nightmares, concerning Amon or any other opponent, just don't close your eyes." He advised her.

"Close my eyes?" Korra repeated, clearly confused by that.

"I'm not going to offer it to you on a plate, figure it out on your own." The male smirked.

"Was that the first lesson?" She hoped it wasn't.

"Just a friendly advice." Not that this was much better.

"Friendly advices are supposed to be direct, not something you need to figure out." Korra argued.

"You… probably do have a point there."

There wasn't much to laugh about, but in the current situation they just needed something small to laugh about. Amon was winning, he was mostly untouchable. So they shared a brief laugh, just for the hell of it.

"You'll understand sooner or later. Now off you go, we'll talk about Amon and what to do next later." Vergil said.

"I'll see you later then? At the Air Temple Island?" She grinned at him slightly.

"Definitely." He confirmed it making her grin widen slightly as she took a step back and turned around.

Korra felt somewhat more at peace, it wasn't like with others. Like with Mako and Bolin who were her closest friends besides Naga, there wasn't much space for acting worried, or talking about Amon, they simply weren't that involved. Vergil was close to her in terms of involvement, age and in the end it wasn't that hard to talk to him. Though she still believed him to be a bit of a jerk.

He watched as Korra left his office and then returned to his work. When he finally came out of his office he was met with officers chatting their day away. All of them, including Saikhan.

"What's the rumor of the day, Saikhan?" Vergil walked up to now slightly pale cop.

"We were just talking about the Avatar." Someone dared to say.

Vergil raised an eyebrow at that.

"This is the third time she came close to Amon and failed. We simply came to a conclusion that she's still not competent enough for her title. The Avatar is master of all elements after all." Saikhan stated.

"You're still salty over the fact that you needed an airship to bring her in?" Vergil inquired making the man turn a bright shade of red as cops around them tried to cover up their sniggers.

"That was cold Vergil." Lu, a short detective sitting at the table with his friend and another detective Gang, commented from the side.

"Not nearly as cold as the cases you and Gang get assigned to do alone." And another round of sniggering engulfed the large office.

"You are letting your personal opinion on the Avatar interfere with seeing that she isn't competent." Saikhan decided to try and make a jab at Vergil.

"Listen, Saikhan." The even tone of Vergil's voice scared the said police officer. "I don't have patience to stand around and argue over the fact that Korra did an amazing job at the arena. So do both of us a favor and start working." He took his eyes off the older male and glanced around the large office. "This goes for everyone present. If you want to talk about someone being incompetent take a good look at your own competence first because if you were half as competent as she was we wouldn't have so many gangs running around." Sleep deprived Vergil was cranky Vergil and cranky Vergil was easily annoyed Vergil.

And with that annoyance keeping everyone in utter silence the white haired male marched out of the building fully intending on paying a visit to Korra as he had promised, yep he had a damn lot to do.

* * *

Once in every five millennia the Avatar must face one ultimate opponent, the shape shifting creature capable of throwing the world into complete despair, chaos and darkness. It takes shape of the Avatar's very worst opponent and now as fate would have it Korra needed to face it.

And this time she could receive no outside help, she had to do this on her own. She had to face the enemy that had taken the shape of a powder. Yes, a form of make-up.

She glared at it as she held the monstrosity in her hand, she glared at it and it glared right back at her, it dared her to make the first move but she simply held it. And then, growing impatient the monster had misjudged its new form's capabilities and flung itself at the young Avatar's face.

The battle was fierce but Korra emerged from the bathroom of Asami's house relatively unharmed.

Going back about an hour, Korra did end up paying a visit to the Sato Mansion where Mako and Bolin now lived; in fact she got to see that Asami was anything but prissy rich girl.

Back in present the Avatar coughed as she fought off the remains of powder that slightly clouded her vision.

"No, no, I assure you, everything is going exactly as planned." She heard Hiroshi speaking to someone on the phone and quickly got to the doors. She knelt down on one knee and looked through the keyhole. "Mhm, yes. Luckily the Cabbage Corp investigation has brought us enough time but that Leonidas is growing suspicious." Korra's eyes widened. "Trust me by the end of the week we'll be ready to strike. And we'll do it in a way that will certainly eliminate Leonidas from our path."

The conversation was over and Korra couldn't believe it, Asami's father was an Equalist and Vergil seemed to be their target at the moment. She had to act, quickly. She practically rushed by her friends.

"You're leaving? But I- I thought-" Asami was the one to speak up and Korra halted for a moment.

"Sorry! I forgot, I'm supposed to airsit, I mean babybend, I mean babysit the Airbender kids! See you later!" And with that she ran out.

* * *

"Pema! Where's Tenzin?!" And she barged right into the dining room, the first place she figured Pema would be.

The pregnant female blinked a few times and then composed herself. "In the city, on a Council meeting."

Korra looked like all of her hopes have been sunk and then she realized that she wasn't alone with Pema.

"Hey." Vergil raised his hand up to greet her.

"Vergil, what are you…?" And Korra was a bit thrown off by the fact that Vergil was here. "Who cares! Thank Spirits you are here I need to tell you something!"

Pema could only look at the duo with decent amount of amusement visible on her face. Korra had grabbed Vergil's right forearm and began dragging him outside, all in all Pema could enjoy the small show of somewhat annoyed and utterly confused white haired male and strangely happy to see him Avatar.

* * *

Now normally, Korra would simply explain things in the room but they didn't exactly have time for that, between the Future Industries being involved with Amon, fact that they still needed Tenzin and Lin to help them out and a negative reaction from her friends she was bound to get Korra clung onto Vergil's arm.

Vergil on the other hand felt his annoyance disappearing, Korra was similar, quite similar to him back when he first started. He figured the lack of experience led to a few traits. Impatient to an extent, somewhat insecure, needing someone who trusts you, eagerness, Vergil went through a period in which he had all those and he had seen it in many newcomers over his later years.

"Take it easy." Back then, he hoped someone would say those words to him so now he offered them to the girl that's been holding his forearm.

She didn't seem to register it so he stopped with enough force to jerk her back and the fact that he gently took hold of her wrist added to her surprise. "Korra."

The grip she had on him loosened considerably but it was still there.

Would he believe her? After all Hiroshi Sato was a man who openly supported pro-bending for example.

"No matter what it is you have to tell me, I'm going to believe you."

And that did it. She turned around to face him. "Hiroshi is an Equalist."

The slight surprise in his eyes showed that he didn't expect this kind of information. It died out as he began processing the new information.

"Let's go, as soon as Lin and Tenzin join us we can get to work." He did believe her.

Growling got their attention and prevented any further conversation.

"Naga, easy girl." Korra ran up to her polar bear-dog. "He's a friend." Naga kept growling. "Naga hush."

"It's fine. Animals tend to either get scared of me or act aggressively at first." Vergil assured her and despite the fact that any normal individual would back away from Naga even when she was calm he went and stepped forward to approach her when she looked ready to bite his head off. "I'm not going to hurt Korra." He reached out to touch Naga and for a moment it looked to Korra like two animals were interacting.

Almost like Vergil, in that moment, shed anything human he had in him and stepped into the instinct driven mindset, he left everything open for her animal guide. His intentions, anything that drove him forward, he even left himself completely open for Naga to strike and Naga seemed to return the favor as she allowed him to touch her snout. Slowly the large animal stopped growling.

"It's mostly my eyes. But things are often sorted out quite quickly." Vergil explained as he pet Naga for a few more moments. " _They know what I am from the very start, unlike humans, animals can't be deceived_." And for that he respected any and all animals that didn't back away from him.

* * *

 _ **And that's it.**_

* * *

 _ **Answers on reviews:**_

 _ **Guest – Thank you for the review. I can't exactly answer your question but I agree with you, it's just that getting healed isn't as easy as it seems and he knows it.**_

 _ **kidkutt17 – Thank you for the review. Yeah, I'm hoping to add some actual changes to the story when I can. To an extent he will become part of the team.**_

 _ **bambino01 – Thank you, I'm glad you do.**_

 _ **Sagicknight – Thank you very much for reading them. Sorry it took me so long to come back, to both this and One Piece story, I'll try updating that one tomorrow.**_

 _ **Naroku – Thank you. You're right about the blood loss, but losing blood via injury for example is different from coughing up blood which indicates there are health issues in lungs.**_

 _ **SamMason666 – Thank you.**_

* * *

 _ **Next Chapter – Price For The Future**_


	10. Price For The Future

_**Chapter 10 – Price For The Future**_

* * *

With Naga accepting him, at least to some extent, Vergil turned to Korra. "How do you feel about this? Sato did help your team and you did spend time with his daughter." He asked.

"I still don't want to believe it, but I know what I heard." Korra looked down, suddenly finding the ground to be really interesting.

"You're worried about how your friends will react." Vergil sighed, it was best to end this quickly. But Korra's friends were bound to react in a way that would hurt her.

"They aren't going to trust me, right?" She finally looked at him. This girl that never had friends before coming to this city now had to do something that could possibly cost her the very first friends she made.

"That's a possibility, if Hiroshi can somehow cover this up and time passes the damage will be done." Vergil stated, he looked at the city. "Is there anything else you heard?"

"They'll be ready to strike by the end of the week and Hiroshi's certain the attack will eliminate you." Korra told him the rest of what she heard and when he didn't respond she continued. "We have to stop him; otherwise you'll be in danger."

"I'm a cop Korra, it comes with the job." Vergil smirked.

Despite the situation she smiled a bit. "This is different, I mean don't get me wrong you…" She stopped.

"I what?" He inquired.

She remembered the feeling she got when he was standing between her and Amon, just after Amon nearly took her bending away, the way he looked… powerful, unstoppable. "…are really strong but what if they attack you when you're on your own."

The yellow eyes softened up a bit. "I appreciate the concern, but don't worry about me. Actually how about you tag along, I think I can dig up some information before we barge in and accuse Sato. Leave Lin and Tenzin out of this for a bit and prepare, how does that sound?"

Getting a piece of action? You could count Korra in anytime if the large grin on her face was anything to go by. "Let's do it!"

Even as tired as he was Vergil couldn't help but smirk at the girl's enthusiasm. "Let's go to the boat and get to the city."

"Naga can take us there." Korra pointed out.

"That works too, at least until we get to the city. She's too recognizable; we'll take a bike from harbor." Vergil agreed as Korra hopped onto Naga.

"You're the boss when we get to the city. Now hop on Mr. Police Officer." She was really eager to start. First of all Vergil was the one that had most success when it came to dealing with Amon so she really wanted to see what he was doing. Second of all he was a dependable ally. Last of all he actually trusted her on this.

* * *

The duo reached the harbor and Vergil's bike.

"What are we doing first?" Korra asked as the white haired male seemed to be looking back at the row of boats they just passed by.

"We visit the banks and get information on Sato. I've already looked into his accounts, now I have an excuse to look deeper into them." Vergil said as he turned on the engine.

Korra wasn't sure what to do as she sat behind him. Holding on to him seemed like a good idea so she did just that. "You sure take this seriously."

"It's a bit of a habit." Vergil admitted and winced when she unintentionally pressed her hand against his wound.

Korra immediately tried to pull her hands back. "I'm so sorry!" Vergil taking a hold of her wrists was the only thing that kept her arms around him.

"Safety first, keep your arms around me, just a bit higher. The last thing we need is you falling off because I can't deal with a bit of pain." He didn't let go until she raised her hands and continued holding on to him.

The ride to the bank didn't take long, barely a few minutes and the duo went straight for the security at the entrance. "Take us to the director." Vergil ordered as he showed his badge.

The guard observed it for a moment and wordlessly led them into the building and up the stairs to the offices. He knocked on the doors at the end of the corridor.

"Come in." The man behind the doors sounded grumpy, well if he had a bad day Vergil was about to make it even worse.

"Excuse me, Sir. The police are here." The guard spoke up, even from this distance both Vergil and Korra could see that the man froze on spot.

"Let them in." He said and closed his notebook.

"Good afternoon." Vergil greeted him and sat down on the sofa making himself quite comfortable. Korra on the other hand felt a bit out of place so she just sat down next to him.

"To what do I owe this meeting?" The director asked carefully.

"Well, someone sure lacks hospitality. No coffee, or even water." Vergil casually pointed out. "Let's not waste time. I want to look into the last five years of any financial activity done by Hiroshi Sato, Asami Sato and Future Industries. From monthly salaries, to donations, to any transactions that happened. And I want them all by tomorrow morning." He explained, the subtle glare in his eyes told the man he was absolutely serious.

"I can't do that." Director decided to take his chance and disobey.

"You need to help us out, we need those reports." Korra attempted to persuade him.

Much to the director and Korra's surprise Vergil stood up. "It's fine. You can do that, but be prepared for an arrest any day now."

The director began sweating; he abruptly stood up and slammed his palms on his deck. "You have nothing to accuse me of!"

"I can and will find something I can put you in jail for." Korra's eyes widened at the threat, he was going too far.

"I haven't done anything!" The director raged.

"Can you really say that there's no one in the world that has never committed anything illegal? Enjoy your freedom while it lasts." The police officer had a smirk on his face as he turned around. "Let's go, he made his decision."

"Tomorrow morning, correct?" Director finally gave in. "Just come and pick them up in this office at eight AM."

"The cooperation is greatly appreciated." The smirk never left Vergil's face as he and a pretty angry Avatar left the office.

"How could you do that?" Korra growled under her breath as they walked down the stairs.

"It's perfectly legal to accuse someone of obstructing the investigation. It won't get him too much time in jail but it can be done. He probably assumed I'd set him up with something worse like you just did. To be frank that works perfectly for me." Vergil smirked as Korra's anger slowly cooled down.

"So you wouldn't set him up?" The Avatar asked just to be sure.

"Of course not. Trick someone? Sure. Let someone rot in jail for something they didn't do? I will never do that." He assured her and Korra calmed down.

"Where do we go now?" Korra asked as they left the bank.

"Now we go for a bit of shopping; you need something that won't make you stick out, then we drive to my home where I'll change and then we start the fun part." So far he seemed to have everything planned out.

"Aren't we wasting time with that?"

"City gets quite talkative when you know when to listen and trust me; it's not during the day." Vergil said. He began driving down the street to a nearby clothes shop.

It was a decently sized shop, nothing too extravagant or expensive, just a regular clothes shop regular citizens bought clothes in. "Welcome, how can I help you?" An elderly woman greeted them.

"Um… I'd like to buy some clothes, something comfortable." Korra said.

The woman nodded and motioned them to follow her. "Please feel free to look around." She said.

"Thank you very much." Korra bowed slightly while Vergil nodded.

"So? Anything you like?" Vergil asked.

"Hmm… I've never really done any shopping so, I'm not really sure about this." She admitted, but perhaps that was a good thing, because she quickly picked out a few articles of clothing and took them to the lady.

"That will be fifty two yuans." The lady said and Vergil gave her the money. "Thank you, please come again."

"Thank you, goodbye." Korra said and left the shop with her bag. "Sorry about that. I'll pay you back, one day…" When she gets her own money, if she ever gets it…

That got a laugh out of the white haired male. "Don't worry about it."

* * *

Well, whatever Vergil expected it certainly wasn't this. Korra sure took this seriously, the clothes she bought, well they did match her and they weren't that much different from her usual clothes but still. She kept her boots and pants, but everything else was different, a navy blue three quarter sleeve shirt with white collar hugged her body and she had cobalt blue bands wrapped around her wrists. What surprised the cop was the fact that her hair was down and she looked gorgeous.

"That'll work perfectly." Vergil said, he himself was sporting a black hoodie and was no longer carrying his wooden swords. Not too big of a change, just enough to not stand out much.

"What's next? You're going to take me to a bar or something?" She was joking.

"Actually, I am. We have some people to talk to." Korra nearly tripped when she registered what he just said.

"You're joking, right?" She really hoped he did.

"No. I'm completely serious." Well this wasn't nearly as exciting as she imagined it would be. "Let's go out on the back exit. Lin and I have a satomobile for these kinds of situations. One that doesn't have any police markings on it."

* * *

Maybe she came to that conclusion too quickly. It was close to nine PM and they were sitting in a bad place. Really, it looked like all kinds of wrong things happened here.

"You two are new here, right? Maybe you should pick a better bar for a date. Things can get nasty here." The young bartender warned.

"How nasty?" Korra dared to ask.

"Don't look so naïve, drugs, fights, all sorts of crimes." Bartender smirked at them. "Go home with your boyfriend before you regret coming here."

"You sure are talkative. Any rumor you'd like to hear?" Vergil interrupted whatever Korra was about to say.

"Depends on the topic." The male smirked.

"Those stupid cops sure got their heads stuck in the sand. I heard someone gave the false information." He whispered.

"That's nothing new, there were a few guys boasting about how they tricked the cops into starting the Cabbage Corps investigation." Korra's eyes widened at the information.

"Really. I'd sure like to meet them." Vergil leaned forward a bit, slumped his shoulders and sighed.

"That won't be a problem. They're over there." The bartender subtly motioned to one of the tables by the corner.

"Is that so…? I expected something better than that." Vergil commented.

"Let's go greet them." Korra figured she should get involved and Vergil seemed quite pleased with her idea.

"Yeah, let's go." They stood up and went to the table where two average looking guys drunk their alcohol.

"Mind if we join you?" Vergil was the first to speak up.

The two looked slightly suspicious but shrugged. "Go ahead." The tall male that was starting to lose hair said.

"I'm Niaz and this is Jahan." The slightly younger male, probably in his mid-thirties said.

"Name's Parzifal." Vergil lied, not for the first time.

Korra, figuring out that giving out her real name wasn't what she was supposed to do pick the first name that came to her mind. "I'm Senna, it's nice to meet you."

"So, what do you guys do for the living?" Vergil cut to the point, quite casually.

"Regular shopkeepers, lately we've been working for A-" Just as Niaz was about to spill something Jahan elbowed him. "Argh! What did you do that for?!" He was obviously drunk.

"Shut your mouth." Jahan growled and turned to Vergil. "What about you."

"We're unemployed, hopefully Amon will bring equality and we'll finally get a chance at finding a job." Korra took her chances.

"Damned benders just keep ruining anything we try." Vergil played along and from the corner of her eye Korra could see him giving her a thumb up underneath the table.

"Oh he will. We're actually working for him, just tipped the police off with false information." Jahan seemed to completely relax.

"What was that about keeping my mouth shut?" Niaz reminded him.

"We are among friends. Let us drink to the new era of equality and freedom of the oppressed." Jahan raised his cup.

Vergil glanced at Korra, she seemed conflicted. Aware of what Amon was doing, but also aware of the way some non-benders lived. Regardless of what happened with Amon she would need to do something for these people.

An hour later with the Equalists as drunk as they were it was easy for Vergil to get them outside and knock them out.

"That was too easy." Korra commented as she looked down on the two unconscious Equalists.

"This entire place is filled with idiots. Starting from the bartender all the way to the customers. Well, maybe alcohol helped reduce the number of their brain cells." Vergil sighed and threw the Equalists into the backseat of the satomobile. "Next stop, the closest patrol unit. It shouldn't be far from here, I'd say roughly ten minutes of driving."

"How many people are oppressed?" Korra suddenly asked.

"You can't simply point at benders or non-benders. You've got orphans on both sides for example." Korra could agree with that, Mako and Bolin lost their parents and they were benders. "Sick, broken, wealthy, successful, famous, powerful… You'll find people like that as well no matter if you're looking into bending side of the citizens or the non-bending. Take Hiroshi Sato for example, he's one of the most influential people in the city."

"I'll do something to make things better." Korra decided.

Ten minutes later she wasn't exactly surprised when it turned out Vergil was right about the time they'd need to get to the first patrol unit.

"Sir!" Two officers recognized and greeted him.

"Hey. It's surprisingly nice weather for this time of the year." Vergil walked up to them carrying the two Equalists.

"A bit cold though." One of the officers replied.

"It is now that you mention it. Here, a couple of Equalists. Keep them locked up, I'll handle the questioning in the morning." Vergil ordered the two patrol officers.

"Yes sir!" They exclaimed with a salute.

"Guess we'll call it a day here." Vergil said as the officers took the Equalists away. A sound of stomach growling got his attention.

Korra rubbed the back of her head as she grinned sheepishly. "I guess I haven't eaten in a while." Since morning to be precise.

"Let's go grab a bite then." After what they did, that sounded like a great idea.

* * *

Vergil grinned as Korra kept stuffing her mouth with the noodles. Now that he actually spent some time with her he figured he was slowly getting fond of the girl. She adapted fairly quickly to what he had planned to do and he had to admit, girl had quite a lot of energy.

He unzipped his jacket and placed it on her back. "It's getting a bit cold."

"You do realize that I'm from the Southern Water Tribe, right?" Korra raised an eyebrow.

"I would have never guessed it." The officer smirked. "Regardless, you're not immune to cold."

"You're wearing a T-Shirt." She pointed out.

"And I'm not trembling, you on the other hand." He reached out and touched her forearm. "Are cold."

Korra rolled her eyes at that. "Stubborn cop." She mumbled under her breath as she put the jacket on and continued eating.

* * *

Finally, the day was over. "So… Parzifal?" Korra repeated the name he used as a cover as Vergil drove back to the apartment.

"My mentor. Grom Parzifal actually. What about Senna?" He could guess that it was someone important to her.

"My mom. Thanks for tonight. I'd like to join you again." Korra looked at him, hoping that he'd accept.

"It's not often like this, but sure, I'd like a company from time to time." She grinned at his words.

* * *

Vergil slowly opened the doors, hoping that Lin wasn't awake. But who was he kidding, she was probably wide awake and waiting to scold the hell out of him.

"Ready for the hardest task?"

"Lin?" Korra guessed.

"Correct." Vergil smirked and walked into the dining room, and there she was, there's the Chief, just waiting for them.

"Where have you been? And what made you think that taking Korra with you would be the smart idea?" She cut right to the point.

"Here and there, lots of places really." He had a really cheeky smirk on his face as he walked into the room and sat down, Korra on the other hand wasn't as confident with Lin. "Korra has the right to be involved in this, plus she needs to see how things work around here." He got a bit more serious as the said female sat down next to him.

"Sato is involved, really involved. Tomorrow I'll have enough evidence to get a search warrant without anyone raising an eyebrow even if we don't find anything. We'll see what happens afterwards, depending on how prepared Sato is we might have to let them make the next step." He informed Lin.

The Chief sighed, massaging her head as she processed the information. "Fine."

"Um… Should I go?" Korra asked.

Lin and Vergil looked at one another before he turned to Korra. "It's already late, spend the night here, I can call Tenzin." Vergil offered.

Korra knew she was blushing, at least a little bit. "You've got a guest room or something?"

"No. You can sleep in his room; Vergil will sleep on the couch." Lin stated, judging by her tone it was clearly an order. One that Korra knew better than to argue against.

* * *

Less than half an hour later she found herself in Vergil's bed with Vergil flipping through the pages at the desk.

"This is strange." She muttered under her breath, not really counting on him hearing her.

"What is?" But surprisingly, he did. How he did that, Korra had no idea.

"Me sleeping here. I mean, it's just different." She turned to look at him.

"Try relaxing, Lin won't jump out to assassinate you." He smirked and put the notes back into the drawer.

"You better be right. Else I'll keep haunting you." Korra promised jokingly.

"As your next reincarnation?"

"Bet on it."

They laughed, just for the sake of laughing.

"Sweet dreams." Vergil said and turned the lights off.

* * *

 _Everything felt so sudden. Vergil and Lin were ambushed, surrounded by Equalists, not that it was much of a problem. With Lin's Earthbending and his skills the Equalists were no match, but that left Amon._

 _Suddenly he was frozen on spot, paralyzed. And his eyes widened as Lin got electrocuted._

" _Stop!" Vergil yelled as Amon took Lin's bending away. "You bastard!" He finally found strength to move. In the blind rage his body was engulfed with electricity. Now… There was nothing Amon could ever do to stop him now. And it wasn't Amon that stopped him. All it took was a chop to the side of his neck and he was down._

" _If you truly want to keep something safe, you better be ready to sacrifice everything else." That voice…_

" _Grom-" A single swipe of the sword chopped his head off._

The white haired male abruptly sat up, it was just a dream… But the words… those were the exact same words Grom spoke when Vergil was about to give up.

"Everything else… everything…" He knew what the everything he had was…

* * *

When Lin woke up next morning Vergil was already up and getting ready, so she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down.

"Someone's following her, right?" Lin asked when Vergil stepped out of the bathroom fresh from the shower.

"Yeah. I don't think they'd attack but I'd rather not take the risk." The white haired male confirmed as Lin walked by him and into the bathroom.

* * *

Korra certainly didn't notice anyone following her as she climbed onto the boat to take her back to the Air Temple Island, luckily Vergil had it covered.

Which wasn't exactly fortunate for the unconscious man in the alley. "Amateurs." Vergil felt like rolling his eyes at the incompetence of some of these people.

Vergil sighed, now he had three people to question and a pile of papers to go through. One night of sleep really won't be enough for him to recover once this ends. He could only hope it would end quickly once they began searching Sato's property.

* * *

 _ **And that's it.**_

 _ **Thank you everyone for reviews, I'm glad you liked chapter 9 and I apologize for absence.**_

* * *

 _ **Next Chapter – Hiroshi Sato**_


End file.
